Art
Good men
Giles Auty
Allan Walton (Sally Hunter & Patrick Seale till 30 November) Virginia Powell Prints (Maclean 28 November to 18 January) Terrick Williams Retrospective (Whitford & Hughes till 8 December)
Anyone reading the lines: 'Bold knaves thrive without one grain of sense ,/But good men starve for want of impudence' may be struck by the number of instances they still seem to fit. Of course, writing 300 years ago, Dryden could have had no direct prescience of our current art world. Instead, like all major writers, he knew the ins and outs of human nature, which unfortunately don't seem to change much, and thus continues to keep his relevance.
Looking at the antics of the 20th-century art world, candidates for Dryden's role of 'bold knaves' come readily to mind, but this week it would be pleasanter to consi- der some of the 'good men' and good women who are the unsung heroes and heroines of latter-day art. What is it that creates 'want of impudence' or, to use a more modern word, want of 'pushiness' in so many good people and good artists?
Unlike a very senior figure in British art who, in a recent conversation, co-related a certain vileness of character with artistic greatness, I prefer the opposite view. To be fair, I think he was confusing apparent success with genuine greatness; but then this is an easily made slip in these im- permanent times. Clearly, want of 'pushi- ness' or aggression is often an attribute of highly sensitive and perceptive people, some of whom are artists. While concen- trating on an inner world in which subtle refinements are vital, they lose that aptly named ability to 'sell' themselves. For over a hundred years, British art has had a happy abundance of such artists; men and women who live modest, understated lives and often show to advantage in times of crisis. Their art, for the most part, is affirmative, thus distancing it at once from mainstream 20th-century preoccupations wherein nihilism, despair and other forms of breast-beating have been the dominant modes. Of course, negative and introspec- tive aspects of life are widely (but often wrongly) held to be more 'interesting'. But which kind of artist would you rather sit next to at a dinner party?
That private buyers enjoy the work of usually 'affirmative' artists such as those of the nowadays much sought after Newlyn School is unsurprising. The freshness, exhi- laration and tranquillity found in many of their images of sea, shoreline and country- side is by no means 'escapist', as so many modern critics believe, but affirmative of a splendour that is neither man-made, nor man-ruined. Yet many of these artists lived lives of almost continuous want and worry which contrasted oddly with those of cer- tain of the 'breast-beaters' who sustained personal lifestyles which would not have disgraced the Medici. Understandably the more understated an artist, the more essential the activities of the dealer, if the work is to reach a wider audience. Luckily in London there are many galleries, often on a modest or intimate scale, which are well suited to the quiet voices of the artists they show.
One such gallery is Sally Hunter & Patrick Seale Fine Art in a small street also made worth visiting by the long-term pre- sence there of Michael Parkin Fine Art and the new premises of Christopher Hull, who has transferred his activities from the Fulham Road. Sally Hunter & Patrick Seale (2 Motcomb Street, SW1) are cur- rently showing the paintings of Alan Wal- ton, who died in his late fifties in 1948. Typical of the obscurity attending the work of many fine British artists, for years manY of these paintings found their home in a shed. What have since emerged are fresh, vigorous oils and watercolours, generally of modest size, which invite obvious and not always unflattering comparison with those of his better-known contemporary Sir Cedric Morris. Almost any of the 44 paintings on show would provide an ideal and inexpensive way for the young execu- tive, say, to start a worthwhile art col- lection. Some of my own favourites are `Gateway'; 'The Old Harbour, St Andrews'; 'The Stone Bridge' and 'The River Orwell, near Shotley'; but with so many pleasant paintings visitors will find it no easier than Ito make their final choices.
At another gallery occupying two floors, the Maclean (35 St George Street, W1), an exhibition of nudes and landscapes by an American-based artist, Cornelia Foss, .0 just finishing. For someone with a certain amount of transatlantic reputation, her work, though ostensibly charming, does not seem altogether convincing. By con- trast, the forthcoming exhibition of prints by Virginia Powell promises to be a banquet for lovers of understated, domes- tic imagery. To detect echoes of such as Bonnard in her work is to speak of its warmth rather than any derivativeness. A selection of 120 beguiling images, the product of over 20 years' work, encompas- ses etchings, lithographs and screenprino. In her hands, the seemingly mundane subject matter of house and garden 'vas" sures us that the home is not yet a complete dungeon of despair for every woman. In a book published eight years ago, .t wrote: `If I were to advise would-be buyers of limited means, I would counsel them t° look for examples of technically accom- plished work by minor British artists frota about 1895 onwards. . .'. Typical of what I had in mind were works by such as Harold Harvey (1874-1941) and Terrick Williams (1860-1936). Anyone with the resources.to follow this fairly obvious piece of adv.Ice might now be cursing me for the very he insurance premiums they would have t° pay on their homes, since prices for these two artists' work have subsequently gone up by as much as 50 times. Terrick Williams is currently the subject of a large exhibition at the suitably capa- cious premises of Whitford & Hughes (6 Duke Street, SW1). Although popular and successful in his lifetime, Terrick Wil- liams's paintings became generally neg- lected for the next 30 years. What the present exhibition shows is that he was a very pleasant and consistent, rather than especially exciting, artist. Perhaps it was due to his popularity that his compositions tended to be on the safe side, even though his eye for colour and atmosphere was Often highly refined. Because he almost invariably worked on the same shape of canvas or paper, based on a ratio of roughly 2:3, there was a temptation to repeat successful formulae. For me, his most 'interesting work was when he got away from this norm. Thus, with its high horizon, 'The Quiet Harbour, Mevagissey' IS an arresting painting, which would not look out of place with first-rank paintings from the Newlyn School. . Although a consistent craftsman, Wil- liams was capable of occasional lapses of Concentration as in the ambitious late Painting 'Notre Dame, Paris', where the drawn construction is wobbly. To say he was not as fine an artist as his exact con- temporary, Stanhope Forbes, is meant as no disparagement since Forbes was a very good painter indeed, and is still under- rated. Terrick Williams nevertheless re- mains an artist for Britain to be proud of— and I imagine he would also have made a cheerful companion at the dinner table.
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