• ART
Norman beaches
FRANCIS HOYLANI)
At the New Grafton Gallery until 28 February are a number of smallish paintings showing places familiar from the work of various nineteenth century masters—Boudin and Monet are two who worked over the same ground. The paintings are by Dick Lee whose work has not been given such a representative showing before.
By all the rules of the new establishment of art experts these pictures should be ir- relevant anachronisms—when Marcel Duchamp drew a moustache on the .41orica Lisa serious, figurative painting was finished—but they look stubbornly beautiful and truthful nonetheless; what is more they 'hold up' on the wall at least as well as many of the patterns with which we are used to being, rather solemnly, presented.
The similarity of Dick Lee's paintings to those of the nineteenth century masters is deceptive. The colour is reminiscent of the eir,ir values and systematic method of _Corot.
but the drawing is quite different. Tradi- tional landscape drawing has been concerned with the construction of continuous surfaces upon which buildings find themselves situated and from which trees and other natural forms arise and subside. This kind of thinking puts the third dimension first and only considers the flat surface of the picture as a kind of counterpoint impressed upon it. Dick Lee's paintings, on the other hand, seem to start with the second dimension and only discover the spatial continuum as though by accident.
We watch him lining up the pattern of various objects and then share his surprise as he discovers, as though for the first time, that the nearby girl on the beach whose head intersects the horizon of the sea is, in fact, a couple of miles in front of it. This sort of reverse order of pictorial thinking results in fresh and unexpected discoveries of both space and pattern, and we have the delightful experience of seeing familiar things as though they had never been seen before.
One of the real pleasures of this exhibition is the deft and exquisite use of oil paint: Dick Lee is a marvellously professional painter on every level, including that of technical proficiency. I found his pictures refreshing, and the whole exhibition allows us to breathe the air of a genuine and original naturalism.
Previous page
