Galleries - June 2013

then it is surely Nicholson. Kate Nicholson is the daughter ofBen (his espousal ofmodernism/ abstraction shook not just St Ives but was fundamental to the en- suing sea changes in British art) and his first wife Winifred, a paint- er whose still-lifes and landscapes remain a byword for the lyrical and poetic; Kate was close to them both. This eagerly awaited exhi- bition at Belgrave Gallery is her first for thirty years. The paintings are ofcourse, a delight: colour, fluency of line, and movement abound. Represen- tational landscapes ofCumbria (recalling her painting trips with Winifred) give way to still-lifes where mark making has become gestural, almost notational and abstracts – rhapsodies ofbrush- strokes where only titles can give clues to their inception: Sun Dance, The Corn is Growing, Sea- salt. When describing her work Winifred talked of ‘the magic of the metamorphosis ofline into movement’, she wrote with the sensitivities ofa painter but also as a mother who knew her daughter well. Pip Palmer Force of Nature There is perhaps is only one way to describe Anthony Green, both the man and his artistic achievement – a force of nature! What this exhibition at John Davies – with works ranging from 1958-2013, in effect, a mini- retrospective – shows to very powerful effect is that his is an art that has, essentially been driven by love a lifelong love for his wife (and fellow artist) Mary, whom he met when at art school. It infuses everything in the show with its passionate engagement in the wonders of the created world, his family, home and surroundings. Green’s great gift as an artist is that far from this becoming a self- referential art, he seems to be able to make us look at our own world with something of the same, almost reverential exuberance. A Creative Zeitgeist Following last month’s piece on the William Scott centenary cele- brations, a note of a new and intriguing exhibition of his work at Osborne Samuel. Entitled ‘William Scott and his Friends’, it consists of works from Scott’s private collection that were the result of ‘trades’ with his painter friends. Though trained in a pre- war milieu, Scott arrived at his artistic maturity in the immediate post-war period, in a zeitgeist of intense modernist, abstract fer- vour and this exhibition, with pieces by Antoni Tapies, Patrick Heron, Roger Hilton and Terry Frost among others, gives a still wonderfully potent feeling of the mood and spirit of that hugely exciting moment. NU for tiger campaigns – and ‘Urban Safari’ from Olympic artist Jeremy Houghton, this should prove quite an event . . . Testament of Truth Leon Kossoff is notoriously reti- cent and self-effacing, genuinely expecting his work to be done in front of the subject rather than in front of the microphone. The current exhibition of some 90 drawings and 10 paintings on two floors at Annely Juda , ‘London Landscapes’, is a rare opportunity for the visitor to witness Kossoff’s very particular and powerful response to aspects and areas of a city which has been a crucial inspiration throughout his life. From early pieces such as Willesden Junction (1962) to the more recent King’s Cross and Arnold Circus charcoals and pastels, Kossoff’s focus always seems to have been on the ‘state of emergency’, to use Euan Uglow’s expression, that underlies the act of drawing or painting. In these portrayals of an ever- changing, never resting London it finds its quietus in a way that is almost breathtakingly appro- priate. I cannot imagine a more impressive testament of truth. Sarah Drury Continuing The Line Some names have a particular resonance and if there is one that rings out above all the others in the crowded St Ives pantheon 9. GALLERIES JUNE 13 A nthony Green ‘Je t’adore’ 1958, the John Davies Gallery. David Shepherd ‘Gilded Tiger’ the David Shepherd Foundation at Mall Galleries K ate Nicholson ‘Grapes’ c.1950, Belgrave St Ives L eon Kossoff ‘Willesden Junction Landscape’ 1962, Annely Juda Fine Art. William Scott ‘Still Life’, 1957-58 at Osborne Samuel Gallery