ART AT the Lefevre Gallery are recent paintings by Robert
Colquhoun. Colquhoun is now thirty-four, and occupies a rather special position among his contemporaries. Our present pre-eminence in painting in this country arises in part from lack of competition ; while much of our work has taste, much of it lacks power. Colquhoun has that power, and, because of it, takes his place easily m the main European tradition. His strength lies to some extent in his self-imposed limita- tions, in the conservation of his forces, in the tremendous concentra- tion of energy within a small compass. It might have been thought at one time that he was likely to become a sort of Scottish Rouault, prepared to spend a lifetime ploughing over and over again a par- ticular small patch of ground. In fact, however, his development has been continuous and logical, impelled by a steady, irresistible pressure of increasing confidence and understanding.
To be sure, his new exhibition shows little fundamental change of subject-matter. Through that slightly sinister and subtly-charged atmosphere of tension, his enigmatic figures move with hieratic gesture. Old women peer into space and time, or commune in word- less conversation. Grief, solitude silence permeate their immobility. But Colquhoun's colour, which has always modified with its sombre richness the northern austerity of his vision, has lately clarified itself from a subdued splendour to hotter, harsher and brighter effects. These colour dissonances and a further simplification in the wedging of his metallic, interlocking planes make some of the latest work less easy to assimilate, but his monumental construction and the tremen- dous solidity of his forms rarely desert him. At least two of the big pictures are mature masterpieces. * * *
The Leicester Galleries have a triple bill. There is a retrospective exhibition of pictures by Alfred Wolmat-k, whose part in English post-Impressionism is too often overlooked ; commencing with his revelation at the beginning of the century, this contains a number of excellent things in his later style. A collection of recent paintings by John Aldridge shows how greatly he has developed. His lowered tone values are sometimes forced to the point of theatricality, but he is exceedingly workmanlike, his sense of composition and design is sure, and his feeling for the countryside is admirable. These pictures are straightforwardly pleasant and honest, painted without tricks of technique. And finally to be seen here are drawings and paintings by a newcomer, Miss Betty Shaw-Lawrence. Her pen line has a mean quality, but one or two pictures like No. 31 suggest possible lines of development.
M. H. MIDDLETON.
Previous page
