Void or Pattern

Leonurab,Vol. 2, pp. 175-178. PergamonPress1969. Printed in Great Britain VOID OR PATTERN Susan Glyn* My newest painting qualifies for the remark once madeaboutoneofTurner’s “It’s apictureofnothing -and avery good likeness”. Thiswas my intention. The contemporary intellectual experience of most people I meet is one of complete negation. In philosophy, ‘LeNtant’; in politics, anarchism; in theology the slogan ‘God is Dead’; in art, the increasinguse of blackasacolour[1-31. Ihavepainted the void becausethisiswhat Isaw. It isnot only the astronauts who find themselvescirclingin the darkness of space; they have externalized an inner experienceof our time. * Welsh artist living at 6 rue Saint-Louis-en-L’Ile, 75 P a r i s 4, France.(Received 24 December 1968.) So the painting is black (cf. Fig. 1). It is my largest work (1-5 meters or nearly 5 feet square). It is worked in thick relief, but that is black too. And most of the centre is completely bare. I have used acrylic paint because it is quite matt. The reliefisheightenedby being dustedwithultramarine and cobalt-violetpigment, and that is all there is to it. The title of the painting is ‘The Empty Tomb’. God has been ‘dead’before, and I think the moment when the Christian disciples looked into the tomb, and found it empty, is the most desolate ever recorded . Yet, for me, in this wasthe seedof allhope. In secularterms the titlewould be ‘The Return from the Void‘. Becausethere is-must b e a way back. Fig. 1 ‘fie Empty Tomb’, relief in acrylicpaintwith powderpigment on wood, 5 x 5 ft (Photo: MarcVaux.) 175 176 Susan Glyn Fig. 2. ‘Life’,relief inacrylicpaint withpowderpigment on wood, 6 x 2-5ft (Photo: MarcVaux.) My paintings have been called paradoxical because I express abstract ideas in a very concrete medium . This isa long-standing grievance. As achild I was expected to produce translucent water-colour washes. Instead, I was caught soaking the pans with water overnight, digging the colour up with the sharp end of the paintbrush and then applying it with scissors. “This is supposed to be a picture, not a mudpie” said the teacher. But I neverchanged. Now critics say to me “Why can’t you make up your mind whether you’re a sculptor or a painter?” But I find the distinction artificial and cannot be satisfied without using both relief and colour. This has led me to some odd experiments. Embarking on oil-paints when I was 10, I built up an impasto by mixing in sugar. The result was rather good and my first canvas was sold. But in the damp Welsh climate the sugar absorbed moisture and on certain days the picture would start to ‘cry’, The water ran down dismally and dripped off the frame. Since then I have tried almost every kind of thickener, including sand, cement, ‘Wallart’, Spackling Compound, Plastic Wood and Polyfilla, as well as a range of somewhat toxic resins. At present I am experimenting with cold-casting in black fibreglass. My parents did not agree with education for girls, so I never went to school and could paint as much as I liked. This has left me with a wish to learn which more educated people rarely have. I spent the war in an anti-aircraft battery manned by both sexes. I took a great fancy to gunnery. It appealed to me as an artist, because trajectories are curves. Most of my paintings have been made up of curves ever since. Taking exams, for the first time in my life, in the army, I found out that I had a knack for it. This went to my head and I became addicted to exams for several years. While my two daughters were small, the nursery used to be strewn with correspondencecoursesamong the nappies, and I qualified as a lawyer, passed the London University entrance Notes: Voidor Pattern 177 Fig. 3. ‘Crucifixionin Manhattan’,reliefin acrylicpaint withpowderpigmenton wood,4 x 4 ft (Collectionof Inter-Faith Chapel,State Universityof New York)(photo: Bognar Gallery, Los Angeles.) requirements,includingadvanced logic,and studied theology, economics, literature and philosophy before the fit subsided. Oddly enough, the result was to simplify my painting. It became increasingly ‘cool...