Art
Black is a Colour
By SIMON HODGSON HUYSMANS was always a bore, and Poe was a bore most of the time. Some have thought Odilon Redon a bore also. Sickert, most enthusiastic of critics, referred to his 'portentous emptinesses.' And yet, at the Arts Council in St. James's Square, a selection of his lithographs, mainly from the third set of the Tentation de Saint-Antoine (encompassing the world of Huysmans and Poe but inspired, when all is said and done, by Flaubert), are among the most remarkable things to be seen in London now. And they are shown very aptly at a time when modern English printmakers are exhibiting a few hours away in Whitechapel. At the 'Graven Image' exhibition, despite some fine prints, one is left with an impression of sameness, same symbols, same approach to surface and colour.
The lithographs of Redon were, to my know- ledge, exclusively in black and white, but the depth, the variety, the subtlety, and the richness of his shaded blacks approach colour in an almost uncanny fashion; it is not difficult to recognise in this printmaker the exquisite colourist of the Japanesque flower decorations. Look especially at the plate (No. 14) 'Des flews tombem, et la tote d'un python parait' for its velvet darkness; or at 'II tombe dans l'abline' (No. 26) for the staggering light of the horses in the sky. These are, in their own personal fashion, fascinating; as artefacts they are master works by a craftsman who had so learned his job that he could push his medium far beyond its more usually recognised resources. Many contemporary lithographers will no doubt look back in envy at the accomplishment of these plates, mainly executed at the start of Redon's career, and done by someone who was, anyway, mainly a painter.
But technique apart, the mood is not so easily admired. 'Cloying horror; 'mystical half-world,' `Oriental fantasy,' jewelled,"evil,"sickly religiosity'—all these terms and more have been used about Redon's prints. The meticulous obser- vation which gives conviction to his more extrava- gant and disturbing images, anatomical and botanical minutia; which heighten the intricacy and verisimilitude of images representing ideas, worry many people. Yet this is, in a more logical and bolder way, very much what Francis Bacon, for example, has been attempting in recent years.
Redon was a realist who achieved mastery very late—his training and his intentions were ill- defined and erratic until his middle thirties. His subject matter, together with his interest in Oriental objects, ideas, and design, is very per-
sonal to him alone—he did not make his borrow- ings from Japan cosy and European as did many of his followers. He was Delacroix's countryman, but he was also Manet's direct contemporary. And above and beyond his day and age he was not content with mere reality (impressionism); 'Crux qui restent dans ces fimites bornees se condaninent a un ideal interleaf.: He was, if you like, no broken-down Edgar Alan Poe, or tepidly naughty Huysmans, but the first psychological artist—ever?—or simply perhaps the first of his kind since Diirer. His work has the aplomb and certainty that one associates with great men, and in these plates he fails to communicate his inten- tion very, very seldom.
Previous page
