COLIN WARD'S 'RETROSPECTIVE'
An Appreciation
It is unusual nowdays for a contemporary artist to offer the visitor such a comprehensive and accessible range of images. This exhibition makes an undeniable impact, featuring as it does a remarkable variety of paintings, drawings and prints as well as textile designs and even a small sculpture. But this initial impression is only partly accounted for by the fact that it is a selection of work done over a period of almost seventy years. A closer look reveals what has sustainted this artistic impulse and motivated the painter throughout a long creative life: his perennial fascination with the visual world, his genuine empathy with human experience and his determination to continually develop his technical skills. The pictures reflect this: in a very real sense they can be seen as a record of Colin's engagement with other people, his concerns and preoccupations and his personal development.
The portrait of the artist's mother is probably the earliest painting here, dating from 1949, yet it already shows an awareness not only of outward appearance but of the inner life of the sitter. These qualities are shared by many of the portraits. There is a quiet, unsentimental scrutiny of the model, but also a recognition of individuality which vividly evokes a person's unique presence. In contrast, a self-portrait placed near the end of the exhibition seems diconcertingly self-contained and inscrutable. Perhaps there is a hint here of Colin's innate modesty: he makes no special claims for his paintings, is sceptical of 'inspiration' and freely criticises his work. Yet there is, in the unflinching gaze, evidence of a belief in the artistic project: that drawing and painting have intrinsic value, and that they may tell us something about ourselves.
The drawings in the exhibition have a special immediacy. Some are studies for paintings shown in the main gallery, others are exquisite stand-alone pictures of animals, birds and people. A page of small sketches of an elderly patient in a hospital bed, or the preliminary design for the figure of a lynching victim, suggest that compassion led to some of the overtly political works included elsewhere in the show, but all the drawings represent the first encounter of the artist with his subject matter and have a spontaneity which is particularly arresting.
A willingness to tackle different genres and to experiment with techniques and representational styles is a hallmark of Colin's work. There are some fine male and female nudes in this exhibition, in which the flesh painting achieves great sensuousness and realism. In a quite different medium the prints of footballers create an almost balletic interplay of semi-abstract silhouettes. And there are several large, completely abstract compositions which exploit colour contrasts and the rhythmic arrangement of geometrical shapes to striking effect. Another genre the artist has explored in various ways is still-life painting, sometimes deploying a 'Cubist' surface grid to unify disparate objects into a satisfying whole, or using vibrant colour to please the eye and to highlight contours and textures in harmonious visual counterpoint. Looking at these pictures in particular it is no surprise to learn that the painter has been interested in music all his life.
The landscapes in the show are especially vivid. Each holds a distinct personal memory for the artist which is distilled in a characteristic image: a tropical storm over dark mountains in Borneo; a copse of trees isolated in a wide Fenland vista of Norfolk; gleaming white rocks and blue sea near Kyrenia in North Cyprus. And there are townscapes of equal quality: an oblique view of London Bridge and Southwark Cathedral across the river from where he lived when he worked in the City of London; a haunting canal scene; a chaotic but colourful building site near his home in Haringey. The natural environment here and abroad, urban architecture, rural fields and deserted beaches - the painter's extensive travels have clearly nourished his imagination and extended his repertoire.
A much more sombre mood pervades the paintings which conclude the exhibition. The subjects - a lynching in the deep south of the United States in the 1930s, the public execution of a young Vietcong soldier in Saigon during the Vietnam War - are treated with directness of reportage, and undoubtedly refer to humanitarian and political concerns close to the painter's own. Colin has been a political activist for many years, and these pictures give further depth and perspective to his view of the world. They insist that art should address the problems of oppression and human suffering as well as celebrating the beauty and diversity of our natural and man-made surroundings. Transposing this comprehensive and accessible vision into such memorable imagery is a real achievement.
Peter Dobson
September 2016