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art/ensvrew
I CEZANNE AND POUSSIN During his life. Cezanne openly acknowledged his debt to Poussin. saying that he wished to re-do Poussin alter Nature. This major exhibition examines that relationship, bringing work by both artists from collections all overthe world. The one not to miss. Cezanne and Poussin: The Classical Vision oi Landscape. National Gallery Until 21 Oct.
I COOPER AND GALLOWAY Two of Scotland's most exciting young artists turn their studios into a gallery. Both Galloway‘s wire sculpture and Cooper’s plaster installation speak of seduction and the betrayal ol appearances.
Leila Galloway and Tony Cooper. 44 London Street. Until 8 Sept.
I SCOTLAND'S PICTURES An exhibition that eloquently shows the need lor an adequate permanent home for the nation's visual art. ratherthan the halt-measure tucked away in the Nationa Gallery. Scotland's Pictures. Royal Scottish Academy. Untll16 Sept.
I PAUL HILL A lyric exhibition of landscape photography ol the Yorkshire Dales titled White Peak Dark Peak.
Paul Hill. Stills Gallery. Until 8 Sept.
I ANDY GOLDSWORTHY Eschewing the more conventional sculptural materials. Goldsworthy works with leaves, thorns. tound rocks and branches. and the craft of dry-stone walling. The perfect venue tor this show.
Andy Goldsworthy. Royal Botanic Garden. lnverleith Row. um" 28 Oct.
Dreams of Paris
A unique exhibition of Max Ernst’s sculpture is reviewed by Andrew Patrizio.
Paris between the two World Wars was a dream of a place to be. Artists and writers. including Max Ernst. flocked there to further the progress ofsurrealism. This was the movement which was dominating European culture at the time (and even now is a potent force in art). rooted in a fusion of German psychoanalysis and new advances in painting and sculpting. The dream. the illusion and the bizarre world of the ‘primitive‘. ruled the artistic imagination.
Ernst. whose complete bronzes and selections of other types of sculpture are on show at the Fruitmarket. started sculpting incredibly late in his career. An early sculpture such as Oiseau Tete (1934-5) was produced a full twenty years after his first one-person show. The fact that he worked much of the time in bronze may alert us to a few ofhis interests. After the early. anarchic history of Dada and Surrealism. the great figures ofthese movements no doubt felt it was time to make something lasting— both emotionally and materially. Ernst seems to be among those who felt that ifart protested too much. or
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simply fell apart. it was unable to communicate with subsequent generations. Proof that his sculpture does. is certainly in evidence at the Fruitmarket.
lf Ernst‘s bronze work was an appeal for permanence then it may be that this impetus is also connected to the fact that Ernst was often forced to travel. especially when the Surreal dream of Paris turned into the nightmare ofthe Second World War. Ernst was exiled to the US. classed as an illegal alien in France. In the US his stability was regained. His contact with that country was similar to that of many artists who made the journey across the Atlantic for the same reasons. On a personal and financial level. Ernst gained security at the door of US art lovers. His work of this period. well represented in this exhibition. maintained its powerful. mythic. Surrealist edge — in the presence of
which. Americans could close their eyes and dream of Paris in the 19205. His largest bronze. Capricorn (1948). is impressive. Part altarpiece. part throne. it utilises a heavy symbolism and aggressive grandeur strongly indebted to his enthusiasm for non-Western art. Technically. his bronzes are conglomerations: three-dimensional collages which fuse different elements. textures and references. They disallow direct interpretations but instead snag on the memory. The shapes and resonances of the pieces are never too comfortably resolved. They betray a complex and open
mind and an intriguing personal history.
I Max Ernst: the Sculpture Fruitmarket Gallery. Until Sept 23. Last week ’5 preview ofAndy Goldsworth y at the Royal Botanic Garden should have been credited to Jonathan Colin. Sorry Jonathan!
_ Controfled
accidents
Sam Francis: Talbot Rice and Printmakers Workshop.
Sam Francis' paintings are an active collaboration between artist and paint. His contribution is centered on ideas oi spirituality. light and the positive forces of art, but he relies on these beliefs achieving their physical presence through the particular characteristics oi acrylic paint on canvas. With all its drips. dribbles. pools. cracks and washes, a Francis canvas is where accident meets control. Both these exhibitions are so lull oi an abundance of visual enjoyment that they are not lor the alool orthe cynical.
Much recent criticism ol Americam abstraction has been cynical. concentrating on the movement as a tool of US political and economic imperialism and even portraying its supporters as stool-pigeons ol the CIA. Francis. although almost peerless in
h» this type of painting. was not promoted in the 1950s as vigorously as others such as Jackson Pollock. Francis’ early style had all the concentration and delight oi Monet’s late water-lilies. whilst his recent work has the Baroque exuberance of late Tltlan. He was always much more associated with the resplendent abstraction ot Riopell and Miro. These European connections and his extended visits to Europe may have distanced him from both east and west
coast camps of US painting. However, it is interesting that his recent style owes a considerable debt to ‘Jack the Dripper’ Pollock and that concurrently the art market has picked up on him in a huge way, his prices rocketing. As with most people, the machinations ot the art market are beyond me, but there is a salutary tale here in that the politics of the promotion or demotion of particular artists should never be allowed to interfere with the appreciation and immediate contact which their work alone can give.
In an environment where success can depend on whether your work looks good in a catalogue or magazine, photographs of Francis' work do nothing to translate the complex play at colour and rhythm which is the essence of his painting and printmaking. His colour is unnaturally dense, yet through a sophisticated knowledge of acrylic he conjures up an engaging mass at space. But it he is a colourist he is also a draughtsman. James Coxon in the Printmakers' catalogue parallels his work with music: perhaps it is best described as symphonic. Not a symphony tor the elite though — it is freely given to anyone who makes the
time to listen. (Andrew Patrizio)
The List 17 - 23 August 1990 61