Exhibition By Henry Bell

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31092, 22 June 1966, Page 8

Exhibition By Henry Bell

Twenty-eight paintings by Henry Bell, a New Zealander living in Queensland who grows pineapples by day and paints by night, are hanging in the Canterbury Society of Arts north gallery. The paintings, some of which are very small, fall Into three groups: paintings (13, 8,19,15) with uncompromisingly hard rectilinear or architectural frameworks; works, quite different in character, in which free calligraphic brush strokes provide the principal motif (16,9, 18); and third, those exploiting brush-handle graffito (5, 17, 2). The painting reproduced above is No. 8, “Birds in a Temple.” The exhibition taken en masse creates an impression of light gay sensitive colouring reminiscent of designs for ballet or opera sets; close up, this unfortunately is not sustained by the individual works whose qualities are often cosmetic rather than truly decorative. Decorative ebullient painting can express emotion as truthfully as a seismometer records an earthquake, but rdther than its wobbly line, tile artist’s quick, sure direct movements calls to mind the flight of a bird. To be successful in this kind of virtuoso performance an artist must have fully mastered all the disciplines of drawing and media to the > point where technique becomes effortless and as unselfconcious as breathing.

1 wish I could say that Mr Bell bad arrived at this summit of achievement Unfortunately his quality of line, whether produced by the trail of the brush or as the edge of a mass, both lack the verve and brilliance so essential in his kind of painting. Then again some elements of his painting seem to me to be in rather doubtful taste. His rather “twee”

goldfish shapes so typical of 1930 bathroom decor, might have a place in satirical or polemic art, but surely not in present day decorative painting? But I’m too hard and perhaps a little unfair, because after all 11 of Mr Bell’s pictures were sold in Dunedin and no doubt most, if not all the plums, have already been pulled out of this particu-

lar exhibition. (Disquieting thought, how many painters are now showing tn Dunedin in preference to Christchurch!) On this showing it would be rash, in my opinion, to say that Mr Bell will come to be regarded as an Important “Australian” painter though certainly he is already a very interesting one. The exhibition closes on June 26—HJ.S.