McLachlan paintings

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 14

McLachlan paintings

Recent paintings by Stuart McLachlan, at the CS.A. Gallery until February 16. Reviewed by Pat Unger.

The Mair Gallery in the C.S.A. has recently shown several exhibitions that are particularly suited to its unique function, that of showing large works to advantage.

The president’s exhibition, “Big Paintings,” in September, 1985, was a great art circus, and last month Neil Frazer’s intensly coloured, dramatic works created bright holes in the gallery space. In this present show, Stuart McLachlan’s larger-than-life figures need all the introspective distance they can get.

Painted without a model, these icons of reality celebrate an Expressionist state of anxiety. Slightly warped canvases, and on some still wet paint, reinforce that feeling. No. 16, three works in one, showing an enormously small, plain meal, do nothing to allieviate the prevailing mood of doubt. The size alone of the six large works, each measuring about three metres by one metre, gives them a presence that the small preparatory water-col-

ours, merely adequate cartoons, lack in contrast. McLachlan, self-taught, who has “painted consistently since childhood,” has followed the distorting style of the painters Soutine and Modigliani. His enormous figures suggest an underlying psychological or spiritual turbulence. They have fingers grossly lengthened, faces buckled with a suppressed emotion that the viewer is invited to dwell on, and bodies misshapen, more in the style of Soutine than the neurotic langours of Modigliani.

Intense emotion intensely expressed, has been suggested as the catchphrase for Expressionist art, and in these works the colours are faithful to this maxim. Franz Marc once wrote “Blue is the male principle, astringent and spiritual,” and in work No. 13 we see the male figure in tones of blue that are sombre, “deep as a cello” and prophetic. In another work, with churchlike windows and white ground, the figure seems weakened by an incapacitating purity. The reds in Nos 14 and 17 can hardly be ignored, as they advertise the figures’ vocation for suffering.

These formally suited, collared and tied figures identify with the early twentieth century style of dress, a time famous for its repressions, but constant repetition gives the

works a mannered look, contrived for a stage show, not real drama. However, they impress, they are ambitious, and no doubt there is more to come. The prices range from $l2O to $l5OO.