Art
New eras John mcEwen
Alistair Smith, Deputy Keeper in charge of the German pictures at the National Gallery and organiser of the exhibition Late k-lothic Art from Cologne (National Gallery till 1 June) is a populariser in the best sense: he tries to knock the art-historical stuffing °at of picture presentation without recourse to gimmickry or PhD didacticism, wit, humour and lightheartedness of so 111,..nch of the Cologne work admirably suit ois method. Cologne Late Gothic is not considered 'ne of the great movements of art – there is 1,1° course in the subject at the Courtauld – has it had its local masters and it certainly nas relevance for our own time. In art as in everything else history is taught to us as Progress. Cologne remained years behind k!naissance Italy and the Netherlands but it still produced some good art. Many people consider current art equally behind the Wiles, but Cologne shows that good can still efte of it. Cologne too was living through a Illannerist and final phase: the Church givi,ng way to the merchants, gothic times to 'enaissance. The final works of the master of the Bartholomew altarpiece are gothick aS Much as gothic – and then suddenly in this City of all places (the same discovery is being ade at exactly the same time in Venice but "here appears to be no connection), canvas ?Pears, the new technology brings a new cra of painting. We too live in decadent nnes. What form will our canvas take? Only Lochner and the master of the rnoartholomew altarpiece can be considered _ asters in an historical rather than local sense, and some of the work, the early canvases or panels, is of slender aesthetic _Ii.terest but essential if you are to under'Aland the true significance of the period. nd, of course, at its best late gothic represents the technical apogee of painting as a araft: the condition of many of the pieces is inazing, not a colour faded or a hair's
breadth of a line eroded after 500 years. As for the rest, the exhibition is exactly the right size and the catalogue digestible, particulaarly Alistair Smith's '. . .because of her refusal to marry, she was paraded through the streets naked (but escaped shame because of her long hair) before being committed to a brothel. A prospective client was miraculously struck dead. Martyrdom soon followed.' A more scholarly assessment is given on another page of this issue by Dr Hoff; in the meantime I thoroughly recommend a visit.
The thirties photographs of Werner Mantz commemorate the fifth birthday of the Felicity Samuel Gallery (till 20 May). Art Deco and photographs are still in fashion so these sober images of the architecture of post-Bauhaus Germany, interesting enough as documentation, will undoubtedly be much to the taste of many people. Frank Bowling's exhibition of Selected Paintings — 1967-77 (Acme till 7 May) shows his development from being a semiabstract artist highly self-conscious of his African heritage into a . mainstream New York stainer. Any stream is better than mainstream. Maybe he should return to figuration again where his interests at least seemed more specific. Jessica Gwynne's etchings (Parkin Gallery till 7 May) include work done as long as eight years ago, and the inclusion of such exploratory pieces weakens the general effect of this, her first, exhibition. Etching is an incisive art, depending on very clear drawing and a bold use of ink to bring out the full range of tonal quality. She is best at overall designs rather than more precise linear effects, but she must narrow the range both of her technique and subject matter if she is really to make progress. One of her latest works, of dancers (no. 28), shows the way forward with its less tentative and finicky drawing and richer inking. Upstairs Emilie Gwynne-Jones's oil portraits, landscapes and still lives are technically more assured but short on imagination.
Diane Hills's larger oil paintings of figurative fantasies and landscapes (Thackary Gallery till 6 May) have the imagination to convey something of the angst that so often seems the price of exotic seaside holidays abroad, in this case Portugal;but technically she must be more respectful of colour and tone: backgrounds are never bolder than foregrounds in nature, and electric light is very different from daylight. Artists Market is showing a jolly selection of jubilee banners and flags and some early Caro sculptures and drawings (till May) and the first Serpentine mixed summer show (till 8 May) is very disappointing.
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