The Galleries

William Mason

This exhibition of drawings and paintings at the Central Gallery was not particularly enjoyable. In places, it was rather like a puzzle or a maze. There were some clear patches, but to me these were few William Mason showed paintings in oils, gouache and water-colour, and drawings in ink and ink and pastel; his styles being almost as varied as his mediums of expression. Some of these combinations of different coloured squares in oils seemed to be nothing but attempts at visual representations of mathematical concepts, and to have no positive meaning. Composition (48 gns.) was of this variety. So was Windows (45 gns.)—but this did also express a feeling of blankness and loneliness. Combat (65 gns.) was an attempt at making the squares move. The effect wanted was perhaps of a battle—of humanity struggling (the title suggests it) but the result was a more elementary conflict: trees whipping out horrid green branches in a storm. The colours were in combat anyway. Curtain (65 gns.) seemed to be a companion piece to this. The squares were lifeless again, after the combat.

Portal (90 gns.) and more squares, was quite effective. Colours were vivid and there was a realistic perspective expressing a feeling something like that of Keat's "magic casements" and "fairy lands forlorn" but without any hint of unreality: this vista is hard fact. Another successful oil Departure, was less formal and conveyed a scene without being either photographic or incomprehensible. A ship is leaving a wharf (or a plane is leaving a runway); the departing object is in blacks and greys, and so is the wharf or runway; the background is in various yellows and oranges and suggests an abstraction—distance—on an analogy with the sun.

You could tell that Dream House was a house, but on stilts and at awkward angles it looked rather like a nightmare. The title gives a wrong Impression; the house is dreamed up and not at all idyllic. Another painting was of a bird. A bird might seem to Mr Mason to be a mixture of red, black, and yellow splashes with white and black edges, placed like an island in a sea of pink, but it does not to everyone. Still, I suppose this is valid art.

Gouache seems to be a good medium for old perspective and ugliness. Claypit was a good representation of a gash in a landscape. Some of the ink sketches were more pleasant although not as seriously treated. Movement of Spring (12 gns.) did show movement, and hesitancy, and renewal; the visual effect is like that of Debussy's impressionistic music. The Survivors were nondescript, their eyes were good—slightly puzzled, rather blank and hopeless. This was a successful study; it had a dream-like and prophetic quality. Altogether this exhibition was rather unusual: it had good points but on the whole remained puzzling.

—K.N-B.