the Cubist revolution not occurred. The more assured is Jankel
Adler, whose absolute mastery over his medium may be seen in a series of small tempera studies for Kafka's works, on view at Messrs. Gimpel Fils. The sense of trembling on the brink of blinding, searing knowledge, which dissolves as one touches it, is not, perhap, to be conveyed in paint, yet the bejewelled implica- tions of these little works are not dissimilar to Kafka's proliferation of detail, which only serves to enmesh one yet deeper in a web of uneasy disquiet. Whatever kind of Kafka they are, they are certainly very good Adler. He has much in common with Klee, with whom he shares a delicate sense of humour, a superb control of technique and an unassuming reticence and modesty. If for no other reason, these qualities distinguish his work from the more strident pro- ductions of contemporary Paris, the sophisticated cuisine of which they more than equal. Of the other pictures,' one or two of the drawings and some of the still lifes in tempera oil show Adler, I
think, at his best. • * * * *
Ithell Colquhoun, at the Mayor Gallery, is a painter who has evolved an entirely personal morphology of an abstract-Surrealist brand. The three picture; she shows which relate more directly to objective reality suggest it is just as well. They are as weak as a work like Gorgan is strong. Within the bounds of her careful technique, encrusted with the branching ramifications of miniature mountain ranges of paint and decorated with the pungent acidity of her colour, Miss Colquhoun's ectoplasmic visions are successful and disturbing.
* *• * * At the Anglo-French Art Centre M. Jules Cavailles adds little to Matisse, but echoes some of his lyric colour progressions with sensi- bility. At the Beaux Arts Gallery some little Steer water-colours, breathed on to the paper, are as delicate as butterflies' wings.
M. H. MIDDLETON.
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