Exhibitions
Jeffrey Stride (Browse & Darby, till 29 October) Elisabeth Vellacott (New Art Centre, till 29 October) Anthony Gross (Belgrave Gallery, till 4 November)
Blessed Lot
Giles Auty
This week I had hoped to offer a preview of the retrospective exhibition of works by David Hockney which opens next week at the Tate Gallery. Unfortunately a number of important works will be arriving from California at the last minute, in the company of the artist. That familiar platinum-blond orb which is the artist's head will not loom over the westerly horizon until this weekend at the soonest. It is well known that David greatly prefers Californian sunshine and the West Coast ambience, yet he remains a very popular artist in Britain. The notion of the boy from Bradford propelling himself into artistic orbit at an early age appeals to those who believe talent will out. David has been lucky also in the astuteness of his dealer and in his ability to talk and even write sense about his own art and that of others. From an advance look at the exhibition catalogue there is a colourful experience in store.
The temporary delay over Hockney lets me write about some easily overlooked exhibitions which are on at the moment. Week in week out London's commercial galleries offer an incomparable richness and variety. Sometimes there are a dozen or more excellent exhibitions one would like to review, often by little-known artists. Jeffrey Stride is not just little-known but virtually unknown here although born and educated in this country. The reason for this is that in 1971, when in his mid-20s, he decided to get married and live in France. The latter condition, at least, is a blessed state undoubtedly, especially for those resident in Lot or Aveyron. The mere names of these departments, or of the more ancient boundaries of Quercy or Rouergue, bring such agreeable associa- tions to me that my mind becomes flooded with evocative images. Does the artist do justice to this incomparable subject matter in his show at Browse & Darby (19 Cork Street, WO? I may be over-critical, simply through my jealous affection for the area, but I sense that Mr Stride's paintings could often do with slightly stronger construc- tion. While fresh, they are inclined to be broad and unspecific and this is country-
side one really ought to be specific about. The deep aubergine shadow in 'The Gorges in Winter' owes some debt to Bonnard, but sometimes the shadows in the summer paintings lack depth. Under- standably, the painter is trying to infuse his productions with feelings of exuberance and abundance, yet paradoxically this is a quest that requires a measure of artistic discipline and restraint.
The latter qualities are very much to the fore in the latest showing of Elisabeth Vellacott's paintings at New Art Centre (41 Sloane Street, SW1). Her ostensible theme is landscape with figures, often with an odd interaction of indoor and outside worlds. The artist's played-down colours remind one of Chinese art in their delicacy and respect for one another. The work is at once lyrical and ambiguous yet full of genuine observation both of action and repose. Such stillness and calm are no less a part of the tradition of Romantic painting than violent movement — witness Caspar David Friedrich. One senses that the artist's world is one in which patience and wisdom would be rewarded at the last. Elisabeth Vellacott's paintings are de- signed and executed with great care, and exude the strange magnetism of icons, out of all proportion to their size.
The artist is in her 80s now and was born in the same year as Anthony Gross, who 'Visitors Arriving Through a Wood', 1988, by Elisabeth Vellacott died four years ago after an extraordinarily full life. In the Twenties and Thirties, Gross travelled extensively in Algeria, France and Spain and enjoyed friendships with such as Balthus, Zadkine, Leger and Picabia. He crossed Spain on a donkey, achieving prowess as a bullfighter along the way; in France he lived in Paris, St Tropez and the aforementioned blessed depart- ment of Lot, home of his wife, the artist Marcelle Florenty. The paintings on view currently at the Belgrave Gallery (22 Mason's Yard, Duke Street, SW1) were discovered recently. They date from 1927 to 1933 and have not been seen in public before. Gross had a lively and emphatic linear style. There is great bounce and informality in his paintings of Algeria, the South of France and the night-life of the Zone, a shanty town on the industrial outskirts of Paris. These are well worth seeing.
As a postscript, those many who have enjoyed the cheerful ambience of Chelsea Arts Club at some time or other may like to know that an auction is being held to help ensure the club's continuance, at Sotheby's on Monday, 24 October at 7.15 p.m. (viewing 21, 22, 23 and the morning of 24 October). Members and well-wishers have given a great range of works of art. Chelsea Arts Club has been going for 98 years. Part of the funds raised will endow travelling scholarships — to the blessed department of Lot, perhaps.
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