C ART
Sport and form
EVAN ANTHONY
Lucky Henry Koehler to have arrived in London at a time when Wimbledon and my own feeble efforts on the courts combined to make it seem appropriate to visit h i s exhibition of Sporting Paintings and Drawings at the Wildenstein Gallery, New Bond Street. There is something terribly specific about such labelling, and it would serve the Wildenstein right if you non-sporting types were warned away. But don't be, because Koehler, an American, has painted some lighthearted and colourful pictures that may inspire you to start your riding , and sailing lessons next week. The drawings are skilful and graceful. Some of the paintings are of the predictably pretty kind, and a few of the horses and jockeys look too rigid to bet on, but there are pictures like Five Jockeys and Going Out at Cheltenham that should raise your appreciation of the more aesthetic aspects of the sport of kings. Spinnaker Start and Three Spinnakers are attractive enough to persuade you to forgive Mr Heath for missing the Queen's birthday celebration. Going on to more abstract territory4,11\ as explored by British sculptor Robert Adams, I find myself threatened by catalogue notes and critic's curse—jargon. The catalogue says Adams "expresses the tension and drama of life in abstract asymmetry," but go along to the Camden Arts Centre in Hampstead, and decide for yourself what Adams does express. It's a line exhibition, generous in output and variety, with the bronzed steel screens among the more exciting items. Here we have a man whose latest work, considered in relation to his earliest pieces, is proof of his interest in the ever-continuing process of refinement of form and material. He handles both with enviable assurance and the viewer can accept his work without worrying "what's that supposed to be?"
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