Art
Pretty pictures
Evan Anthony
To those unfamiliar with the wonders and wares of Victor Arwas's pleasure palace (officially known as the Editions Graphiques Gallery) in Clifford Street, now is as good a time as any to make its acquaintance, for on view is an absolutely stunning exhibition of etchings and aquatints by the German-born hedonistfantasist, Hans Bellmer. A few years back at the old Robert Fraser Gallery, Bellmer had to be shown to visitors as the choicer exhibits are currently displayed in Soho cellars — by special request, that is. Times have changed, and his pictures are now up on the walls for all freely to see.
If the under-plain-cover and plastic-mac crowd don't flock to this exhibition it won't be because these remarkable pictures don't contain the right raw material (no pun intended), but only because Bellmer's method of drawing — an impression of a triple or quadruple image — is slightly too sophisticated for those who like their anatomy lessons kept simple. I would not dream of accusing Bellmer of being subtle, but his photomontage effects produce a collection of phalluses and vaginas in a dazzling array of novel combinations that could prove altogether too challenging, and even worrying, to any innocent art lover who accidentally wanders in, and is blessed with a literal turn of mind.
While the pictures do suggest por nography (I should hardly care to argue that they aren't of that ilk), we are not in Lennon-land here; these are drawings by a master, not a jokester. Even charter members of the Festival of Light could conceivably find the work illuminating, in a positive sense, and might concede that Bellmer's drawings have that extra something that separates art from smart, or smut. These are fascinating images, amusing and disturbing, and as though that weren't enough, the draughtsmanship is exceptional, the quality of line never straining for its incredible effects.
With no thought of flippancy, the same could easily be said of the Drawings by Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo and their Contemporaries, the new exhibition at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace. It is, of course, a less one-tracked exhibition than Bellmer's, and if you find it difficult to view the show comfortably it will be for different reasons: the trick will be to secure a place among the crowd in which to have the kind of unhurried, quiet look that this unparalleled collection deserves. Among the 'contemporaries ' represented are Bellini, Filippino Lippi, Giorgione and Mantegna. These are, as you possibly already know, breathtakingly beautiful drawings — metal point, chalk, pen and ink have never been more superbly used.
It is a hard act to follow, but then I am sure that Harold Sheilci has no such grandiose pretensions. For lighter pleasure, though, his nature watercolours at the Waterhouse Gallery are to be recommended. When pictures are described as pretty, or easy on the eyes, there is the risk of making them sound negligible. These aren't. They are professionally painted, and while hovering on the brink of damning with faint praise, an important feature of Sheild's pictures of rock formations, stoats and flowers, is that they aren't dull. Now it's out — I like pretty pictures.
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