ART
MR. MERVYN PEAXE typifies the tendency among some of the younger artists to cast their net widely in different waters. He started as a painter, turned—partly for practical reasons during a period in the Forces—to those book illustrations by which he is now most widely known, and has recently created a considerable flurry with his " gothic extravaganza " (to summarise most of the critics) Titus Groan. He is still painting, however, and some of his recent oils are to be seen at the Adams Gallery. To a large extent these pictures spring from that grotesque world of his imagination which be has exploited and made particularly his own in other fields, a world of macabre eccentrics and pathetic, elderly children. Aside from the literary aspects of his painting (ever beloved in England), the main strength of his work lies in its elan—the lively and apparently effort- less brushwork, and the certainty of aim and means—to be seen in pictures like Head of a Rogue. His weaknesses are several. He does not always bother himself about colour ; he has difficulty in covering large uneventful areas effectively, and since his figures are frequently unplaced in time and space, their amorphous backgrounds contribute little to the whole • there may be discerned a tendency to rely overmuch on the produce of his own imagination without new visual truths being imported to restock the larder so that his characters tend towards_ a common mean where a Cock (No. zo) and a Whore (No. i6) look almost like brother and sister. Most of all, I feel he can do it all too easily, that his obvious and undoubted talents are not being fully extended. Nevertheless, he is still ex- perimenting, and there are signs in this exhibition of an extension of his interests both in subject-matter (there are two excellent land- scapes of Sark) and in handling, which should prove fruitful. If he is his own sternest critic during the next few years, I feel sure his present promise will be more than fulfilled. M. H. MrnnLzreN.
Previous page
