2 JULY 1983, Page 27

Art

Gilt-edged

John McEwen Brian Clarke (Robert Fraser Gallery) Early Italian Paintings and Works of Art 1300-1480 (Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd)

The Adjectives of History: furniture and works of art 1550-1870 (Colnaghi) The Realist Tradition (Agnew's) The London art gallery that has most come to symbolise the zest of the Six- ties has been Robert Fraser's, so it is not surprising that the reopening of the Robert Fraser Gallery after a decade, this time at 21 Cork Street, W I, is welcomed by art dudes old and new as the most energising event of the year — at least. Brian Clarke is the most Sixties character to have emerged in the London art world since the Sixties, and ap- propriately he is the artist honoured with the reinaugural show. Best known for himself, then as a stained-glass maker, he here exhibits his latest seven paintings in oil on canvas (till 15 July). Clarke's energy, whether manifested in the form of publicity or the making of objects, is both undeniable and commendably against the English grain, so to say that one 'or two of these latest paintings display more artistry than he has shown before is potentially to say quite a lot. A year for him is an age for most of us, and he will surely benefit from the sophisticated direction of Robert Fraser. Clarke spent last year in Rome, and while the overall design of his paintings is carpet-like and his geometric devices still conform to the rigidity of a divisional grid, the underpainting and even the devices

themselves are now touched with a greater acknowledgement of the joys of gesture and texture. His surfaces may too often look like the ‘Snowcemmed' walls of Italian bistros, his colours sometimes mix messily and he dallies with a disconcertingly un- finished look, but a bright painting op- posite the entrance shows the way forward — reactive reds and blues make an optical dance, and rigidity and freedom are more subtly combined.

Galleries that specialise in antique art tend to put on their most splendid displays in June and July as a climax to the art year; and nothing can be more scholarly this season than the arduously gathered selec- tion of rare early Italian gold ground pain- tings at Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd, 7/8 Mason's Yard, Duke Street, SW1 (till 16 July). Most of these fragile works are on loan and the gallery itself feels it is unlikely that it will be able to repeat this kind of museum-standard exhibition, so great are the complications now involved. This, of course in spite of the fact that Matthiesen's brand-new premises were built to conform to the most up-to-date requirements for the conservation of pictures — the air humidi- fied, the temperature exactly controlled. Weather, too, it is interesting to learn from the catalogue, was no less crucial to the making of these gilded mediaeval altar- pieces. Coating the wooden panels with gesso called for dry, windy days; gilding it, for damp and rainy ones. The controlled environment at Matthiesen is a long way from the dusty workshops of Florence and Siena, and so are the walls of a commercial gallery from the consecrated altars these works once adorned. Some of the most beautiful objects in the exhibition are the 'miniatures' pillaged from the pages of holy books, most of them lent by the Fitzwilliam Museum and in pristine condition. Among the better known masters represented are Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico and Sassetta. The exhibition is in aid of the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum.

The Adjectives of History at Colnaghi; 14 Old Bond Street, WI (till 30 July) has been selected by Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios to demonstrate 'that the hard and fast divi- sions between "major" and "minor" arts are nonsensical'. 'Hard and fast' are the crucial words, because it is only in our own defensively fragmented times that the so- called 'fine' and 'decorative' arts have been placed so much at loggerheads. Here are two carved and gilded chairs made in the 1770s for the penultimate Doge; a neo- classical inkstand commissioned by Napoleon's mother; an elegant pair of 18th- century corner cupboards from Naples; heavier things from puritanical Florence and Germany. A roomful of antique musical instruments lent by Alan Rubin and a separately catalogued exhibition of Old Master Drawings tops off this cornucopian offering.

Agnew's, 43 Old Bond Street, WI, have chosen an exhibition principally of English paintings and drawings from 1880 to the present as their summer finale, entitled The Realist Tradition (till 22 July). Despite the title nearly every taste is catered for, from the impressionism of Wilson Steer to the near abstraction of Ben Nicholson. Sickert is particularly well represented, while among individual delicacies there is a notable pencil and watercolour sketch of a girl by Stanley Spencer. The work of living artists is most strongly represented by senior Australians such as Nolan and Drysdale.