Art
Andrzej Jackowski (Marlborough Fine Art till 26 September) Francesco Clemente (Anthony d'Offay till 30 September)
Light in the darkness
Alistair Hicks
hose who want to know what is happe- ning in contemporary painting will have a good month. Londoners are being given their first opportunity to see three concur- rent major exhibitions of leading but very different exponents of `New Painting'. The Saatchis are showing us their unparalleled collection of Kiefers, the Whitechapel is putting on a one-man show of the quixotic and highly controversial Schnabel and Anthony d'Offay presents Clemente's dis- turbing graffiti and other more sustained but still broken images. In this heady cos- mopolitan atmosphere Andrzej Jackowski, one of Britain's strong crop of young pain- ters, has his first one-man show at the Marlborough.
Jackowski's light, colours and symbols have cried of insecurity for many years. Life in the twilight world of 'Refuge/ Refugee' (1982), `Going on' (1982) and The Wooden Vessel' (1983) was one of constant travel. The artist was born in a refugee camp in north Wales just after the war and spent nearly 11 years there. The Nissen-type dwelling of 'On the Edge of the Hive' (1986) was a reality of his child- hood, but there is a new confidence in such work of the last two years. The philo- sophical fatalism with which the bare boards and empty vessels were faced has been replaced by a far more complicated but positive enquiry into the way we lead our lives.
The gentle melancholia of some of Jackowski's work, heightened by his care- fully chalk-grounded canvases with their vibrant luminosity, can instantly repel the viewer. His middle-European tune may be lyrical but it is often sung in a purposefully discordant key. If one believes Kan- dinsky's colour theories, Jackowski's works when they are not sad are verging on madness. `Long-Night' (1985) with its streak of yellow could be interpreted as the perfect example, but I prefer to see it as a turning point. It is an extremely bold composition. The centre of the canvas is virtually blacked and scraped away. As though looking at an early map of, the New World, the eye avoids the interior and fol- lows the colourful coastal developments. A dark woman sits propped up against some makeshift, wooden object. To sustain her through the night is a fish or a miniature boat. It would be a depressing, dreary scene if it wasn't for the thunderclap of paintwork that bursts out of the obliterated canvas in the top-right corner. Gone is the feeling of the 'Diving into the Wreck' (1983); there is a new and beautiful light at the end of the vision.
`Settlement' (1986) and `Settlement with Three Towers' (1986), a pair of large paintings that are the climax of the show, don't rely on an instant appeal. The latter's forest of candles conjures up images of an ancient army encampment. It is a personal battleground. Like many of Jackowski's works, the first canvas (`Settlement) looks like a cross-section of rock strata, its bands of colour can be seen as the deposited knowledge of generations. The candles in the other painting break this rhythm. The small flames flicker and tilt in the dark as though on a rough sea, but this activity is restricted to the forest in the valley.
The first line of trees acts as a living fence to contain this tumultuous inner life. It is not a man-made prison but a natural one. In the high foreground are two boats. Miniature figures are making preparations to escape the threatened flood like Noah. This tub of an ark, however, is dominated by a majestic and empty Viking craft. Its enticing red interior leaves no doubt about its psychological significance and the po- tential firmament of the funeral pyre. Should it ever put to sea, it would be for a final voyage.
The two bride paintings also explore the theme of captivity and release. `The Black Bride' is totally restricted by her condition and echoes Kitaj's `Passion' figures in their coffins. There is a pagan joy when the pol- len falls out of the `The Pollen Bride's' clothes like confetti. She is cleansed as her past in the form of a little black lover tumbles away amongst the petals.
Jackowski is a contemplative artist, who consistently builds up a mood. Clemente could not be more different. He regurgi- tates his tangled thoughts with lightning speed. He deals in old images, because these have the greatest impact, but breaks them open again by presenting them in new situations. He enjoys a clash of cultures, living in India, New York and Italy, and several of the works have confu- sed origins. Some are about the beginning of time, creation and genesis. In the midst of Indian symbolism of the circle, of circui- tous life, of an egg that benefits from sur- realist touches, an Adam and Eve will spring to life, though the first woman re- fuses to take a traditional role and acts as God. A woman turns into the core of a circle, a lustful woman sprouts the head of a tiger and the sea is transformed into rol- ling blue sand dunes surrounded by rocks. The paintings are unmistakably varied.
Clemente doesn't have the grandeur of Kiefer, he doesn't make the romantic ges- tures of Schnabel or possess the simplicity of Chia. He wishes to find himself an ec- centric place in the history of art. He has done that already, but will it last? He him- self said in an interview a few years ago, 'I like to think of art as a waste . . . for example, in the East you meet some people . . . what they do is visualise things. There is a tradition in the East which is visual, but it is an inner visual tradition, So it's like they do paintings, but the paintings have a very short life, ten seconds or some- thing like that.' Clemente is a natu- ral progression from conceptual art, but there is a demand today for something more. Many British painters are meeting this need; Jackowski is one of them.
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