Back in the mid-1960s, pure abstraction still just about meant something. We’d already had Malevitch and Kandinsky and all the abstract expressionists, but art hadn’t yet been totally blown to pieces by conceptualism. And at the precipice of all that came Patrick Heron and Victor Pasmore, showing up to represent the UK at the 1965 São Paulo Biennial with a load of experimental paintings that were still – just – fresh enough to feel experimental. The show is semi-recreated here, with a few works from the Biennial mixed with others from the same period.
Heron and Pasmore had their differences. Heron worked flat, Pasmore in 3D; Heron was all bold and bright, Pasmore all muted and sombre. But they work well together. Heron’s rough, brash, quick, ultra-colourful compositions are feverish and joyful, like he couldn’t wait to splodge on the circles and lines, can’t even finish one idea before rushing onto the other. Pasmore is much more considered. He arranges wood and Perspex into geometric constructions that jut out of the wall, like he’s taken a table apart and reassembled it to make more sense.
It’s that clash – quick and easy versus slow and overthought – that makes the show work. Alone, Heron feels a bit slap-dash, like you wish he’d just taken a bit more care and time. And Pasmore, equally, feels a bit too arch and overthought. They balance each other out.
Pasmore edges it for me, though; his paintings and assemblages just work better, they’re clearer, more successful, quite beautiful. Heron’s work can be beautiful too when he’s at his best, but good lord he’s a mess most of the time, with bits left rough and unfinished.
This lovely little show is a window into the past of British art, into a time when abstraction like this – so pure and single-minded – still felt fresh, still felt exciting.
