Art
Lost impetus
John McEwen
One of the troubles with art today is that there has never been a time when artists were better informed about art and, consequently, more self-conscious of their position. Over the years Derek Boshier's work has been determined by this situation more illustratively than has that of most of his contemporaries. He was one of that first generation of English art students who ,jr1 the early 'sixties made their new technological surroundings the subject of art as a matter of course. Modernism was the prevailing critical orthodoxy; Duchamp was being rediscovered; art analysis was coming to its flood. The so-called 'pop' painting of Boshier and his Royal College associates was a seductive mixture of these elements: the portrayal of mass-produced or 'popular' symbols recognisable to everyone, painted with an arch appreciation of their relationship to past art recognisable only to a few. Boshier differs from his contemporaries in that he has tried to maintain this duality, while Hockney and the rest have discarded the high jinks of 'pop' and succeeding trends to concentrate on painting. He has consciously held to a peripheral position which seeks to avoid the maw of academic categorisation.
The latest work (Angela Flowers till 13 November) baldly restates this position, in the spirit though not the style of his student days. They are small, wall-hung assemblages, each one made to evoke the aura of a specific 'location': joky, junky, easily understood on one level but in their subject matter and constant allusion to other artistic styles, very much in league with the cognoscenti as well. UnfortunatelY this self-consciousness is not helped by the
inadequacy of the insights to which it draws our attention. The pastiches of painterlY styles—Van Gogh for example in 'Land
scape—are simply not skilful enough, and the white on white satire of 'Art Gallery adds nothing to our understanding of act or galleries, nor come to that is it much of a joke. The approachability, the generosity of it all, are disarming — particularly In 'Museum', a richly autobiographical piece ----but cannot disguise the fact that the time seems finally to have arrived when Boshier will have to be more singleminded, if he is to maintain the impetus of the best of his former work.
Victor Burgin (Robert Self till 26 November) appeared at a time when some art had become so self-critical and some art criticism so self-perpetuating that their roles became interchangeable. Burgin is excellent when he analyses the ways in which the media influence opinion and would make an interesting TV critic, but his blown-up photographic images, overwritten with explanatory captions and sold as if they were priceless handmade objects, are restricted by their form and hopelessly self-defeating in the cynical acceptance of their art status. The confusion from which his interests arose and which they continue to reflect, lies in his wilful misunderstanding of the word 'pelt* tics'. Politics are not 'party politics': one Is philosophy, the other a question of pragmatics.
Burgin must be a good teacher though because his former student Edward Barber (Half Moon Gallery till 17 November) has a way of his own. Barber is more concerned with people's interests than their ideals. and the modesty of his commitment, whether shown in an art gallery or not, has opened a rich vein of political possibility, especiallY when it explores his sitters' obsessions. Such purposefulness makes this a good first shoW. Daniel Buren (ICA till 17 November) emerged during the Paris riots of 1968, when he took advantage of the chaos to billboard unequivocal stripes all over the city. Having exploited the freedom of that moment he has subsequently, with a French mixture of irony and horse sense, been equally adept ifl the exploitation of his own success, his stripes only becoming prettier as the Years have gone by. The present lot are the most decorative yet, essential viewing for arbiters of the National Trust. Merlyn Evans (New Art Centre till 12 November) is best remembered as a master etcher prominent among those who rein' stated this art after the War. The best of the drawings and paintings in this small retro. spective display his Celtic temperament In the sensual curves of their line, in their i lectual ism and fiery idealism. They are most effective when holding closest to the emotion which has inspired them, as in the more detailed nudes and such early canvases as 'Day and Evening' (1935) or the furious Ti Mark of the Beast' (1940).
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