destroyed the most ambitious projects of a Welles or a
von Stroheim have been por- trayed as bean-counting barbarians whose meanness prevented great Artists from pursuing their visual concept. That is what they were when dealing with Welles or Von Stroheim. But most directors aren't Welles or Von Stroheim. And the work of most directors was improved by the rigid disci- plines the philistine executives imposed.
That relationship seems to have changed. Emerging from Wyatt Earp, Lawrence Kas- dan's Western starring Kevin Costner, after 189 minutes it is difficult not to long for the days when the director would have been given 40 days to shoot his picture, and told that if he shot more than he needed for a 90-minute film, he'd be fired. Wyatt Earp is a long, self-indulgent attempt at creating an epic vision of America's past. As Sam Goldwyn remarked, 'it must be Art, because it certainly isn't entertainment'.
In fact, Wyatt Earp is a bore of epic pro- portions. Yet before he became an Artist, Kasdan was an entertainer of considerable stature, the writer of Body Heat, Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Big Chill. With Wyatt Earp, the Artist seems to have killed the entertainer. It is a familiar pattern. Exactly the same happened to Robert Zemeckis when he decided it was time to become an Artist. Before he made the dull, flat, pre- tentious 142 minute Forrest Gump, Zemeckis directed pictures like Back to the
EDWARD SEAGO
An exhibition of paintings and watercolours from the artist's estate 2ND-25TH NOVEMBER 1994
The Colleoni, Venice SP I N
SPINA & S019 LTD., 5, 6 & 7 FORD STREET, SE JAMES'S, 1.0190019 ATV 605. TEL: 0171-930 7889. FAR. 017E939 4553. TELEX: 916711.
Although this show runs for only a day or so more, try hard not to miss it. While a series of 30-odd self-portraits forms the nucleus of the exhibition, there are scores more etchings, drawings and watercolours to choose from. Paradoxically, the modest and understated nature of many of the images makes them even more poignant. Thus the effects of war apparent in the watercolour 'Warwick Lane, EC2' 1942 are observed with the same level-headed calm as the urban poverty in 'Goods Yard, Har- row' 1933. The artist became a Roman Catholic in 1942 and the superb self-por- trait of that year shows a face of consider- able spiritual strength and dignity. Holloway is an artist any society should honour but as recently as 1957 he was moved by neglect to sell all his copper etch- ing plates to a scrap-metal dealer. A critical Climate which cherishes charlatans almost invariably neglects true worth. The long-term neglect of Frank Dobson is also being repaired at present by two major exhibitions and a book. The first exhibition, at the Henry Moore Institute at Leeds, continues till 29 December while the second, at Jason & Rhodes (4 New Burlington Place, W1) runs until 26 November. The comprehensive book on the artist's life and work has been pub- lished under the aegis of the Henry Moore Institute by Lund Humphries. It catalogues and illustrates over 200 pieces of sculpture and has 416 illustrations, of which 16 are in colour. The Sculpture of Frank Dobson by Neville Jason and Lisa Thompson-Pharoah fulfils an important art historical need. It can be ordered, among other places, from the Jason & Rhodes Gallery where, what is Putatively the sculptor's best-known piece, a highly polished bronze head of Sir Osbert Sitwell 1922, greets and scrutinizes visitors on entry. T.E. Lawrence declared the work the finest portrait bust of modern times'. Seventy years on, Dobson was one of the two sculptors chosen to represent Britain at the 14th Venice Biennale. The other was the late Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, rather than the unfortunate Epstein who was still deemed too dangerous to expose. The exhibition at Jason & Rhodes shows Dobson to have been an excellent and expressive draughtsman, something of which a number of sculptors who have rep- resented Britain in more recent Biennales might not be accused. Free and fine pencil drawings abound. Yet it is often thought that Dobson's best work was over by the mid-1930s. Emergent talents such as those of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth pushed Dobson slowly into critical obscurity. In a world dedicated increasingly to modernist values, his career may not have been helped either by his election, in 1951, to membership of the Royal Academy or by his appointment in 1946 to a safe and well-paid post as Head of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art. It is not just water that can put out a flame.
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