Evening star., 1961-12-17
Dickson Gallery

up in America recently that
the only painting going on in
Spain, Poland, Japan or
where you will is imitation
New York-type abstract ex-
presSioniSm. The way this
notion arises is as follows:
Under the auspices OF the
Museum of Modern Arts In
ternational Council, a series
of exhibitions of American
abstract eXpreSSloniSm has
been circulated through much
of the world. The exhibit
tions are followed or some
times accompanied by rep
resentativeS of the council
seeking material for reverse
lend-lease exhibitions in New
York. Not surprisingly, per-
hapS, the representatives find
or are shown regional varia-
tions of the same kind Of
painting they brought in from
America. These Spanish, Jap
anese or Polish variations on
a fifty-third street theme
are dutifully brought back
to fifty-third street and
visitors to the exhibitions eX-
claim in wonder that it's the
same the whole world over.
Well, Of course, it is the
same the whole world over if
you bring along your own
portable landscape. The cur
rent exhibition at the Dick
son Gallery has the special
value of affording one small
peek behind the portable
landscape fashioned in the
last several years by the land
scape specialists of the Gug-
genheim, the Museum Of
Modern Art and the Carnegie
Institute.
The peek is nothing like a
really comprehensive survey
Of contemporary Spanish
painting. The Dickson has
a one-man show of paintings
by Manuel Monedero, who
exhibits nudes, figure groups
and scenes of childhood. Mr..
Monedero is no giant in the
land, but he is always COM
petent and often interesting.
With his countrymen exhi-
bited in New York, he shares
the qualifications of being in
his mid-3Os and having the
patronage of GeneraliSsimo
Franco. The contribution of
the Dickson is the revela-
ton that such painting does
take place in Spain. One sus-
poets that there is a great
deal more of it than would be
dreamt of at the Guggen-
helm or the Modern.
The Nude in Art
Sir Kenneth Clark, who
ought to know, claims that
no nude worth its flesh tones
is devoid of erotic appeal: the
nudes Of Mr.. Monedero GER
tainly qualify. These are no
austere arrangements of VOL
umes and planes as they hap
pen to appear in the female
figure. The paintings are all
examples Of what the pro-
gram calls "the beckoning
nude" But the beckoning is
tnSeparable from a slightly
uneasy touch - something
about the faces, something
about the color-that be-
comes embarrassingly explicit
in Temptation" wherein a
holy man is assaulted by a
Well-endowed nymph.
The uneasiness is also pres
ent in the artists success
full resurrection of an art
form long thought dead or
banished to the magazine
covers of Norman Rockwell,
the genre picture. Mr.. None
dero paints groups of chill
dren at play and groups of
people in masks, presumably
at carnival time. In both
kinds of painting there is a
recollection of Goya and the
feeling that the innocent di-
versions thinly cover the cos
mic abyss which is about to
open and swallow up every
thing. This implication be-
comes explicit in two pic
lures, a group of children re-
leasing a parade of giant
balloons into the air, and,
From Don Quixote," half a
dozen large, ungainly hobby
horses careening through
the upper air, peopled by the
timid, the delirious, the
ecstatic and the scared stiff.