ART
Most' people will want to see Eugene Berman's felicitously baroque theatre designs at the Hanover Gallery, and it would be a pity to miss the most recent of those little mixed exhibitions in which the St. George's Gallery specialises (reinforced, this time, with a group of pictures by Magdalena Radulescu, whose work is related, in some measure, though richer in colour, to that of Massimo Cam- pigli). In many ways the most significant of the current shows, however, seem to me those at Gimpel Fils and at the Redfern. Both consist of prints—the former French only, the latter French and British—and since they overlap at a number of points they may very happily be considered together.
Engraving in its various forms has suffered something of an eclipse in this country during the last decades. It is practised, of course (though perhaps less extensively than hitherto), by academic craftsmen of greater competence than imagination. S. W. Hayter and his pupils hint at a revival of aquatint, but, exceptions apart, to find etchings or aquatints that in any way reflect the creative spirit of the age it is necessary to turn to France, where the edition- de-luxe provides an additional spur. De Segonzac, Vieillard (there are good things by both at Gimpel's), Rouault, Courtin, Villon, Chagall, Picasso and Matisse are only a few of those who have enriched the processes.
The contemporary trend is all towards lithography, however, and here it is a different story. In lithograph and monotype, as the Redfern collection shows, we can sec the emergence of a British group of artists who—at the moment in concert with Parisian printing—can challenge comparison with any in the world. firaque's exquisite still-lifes ; the rich abstractions of Manessier ; the quiet realism—ultimately deriving from Bonnard and Vuillard —of Suzanne Humbert, Clairin, Lang, and Jean Marzelle ; the fireworks of Picasso—these Paris has to offer in lithography ; these, and some recent and surprising prints by Andre Masson, which are quite unlike his previous work. But in no way inferior arc those contributions at the Redfern from Michael Robert Ayrton, Colquhoun, Edwin Le Dell, William Gear, Patric Heron, Caroline Lucas, Robert MacBryde, Ceri Richards, Humphrey Spender, Keith Vaughan, Denis Wirth-Miller and Bryan Wynter. It is a comment on the standard of the exhibition that this list could be doubled without difficulty. It is only fair to note also that a number of the same artists are represented at the R.B.A.'s winter exhibition, where, though sculpture provides the main interest, the prints nevertheless reach a very respectable level. It would be a sour taste indeed that could not choose itself an inexpensive Christmas present from
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