Page 56 - Studio International - January 1965

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in lightish tones throws sunlight on the figure.
Marek Zulawski at the Drian Galleries is less concerned
with surface reflections on form His 'travellers' and
'brothers' and 'lovers' take on the solid earthiness of
human beings whose reality is concrete. slow-moving
and somehow inevitable. There is appearing now in his
paintings a weight of matter that brings a pondered
seriousness to the conception. Man's condition. his
isolation and his basic immobility. are apparent in many
of Marek's new works. In relation to total area. the
figure is large and the use of lacquer with the oils gives
a heightened attention to the material of the artist.
As I wrote at the beginning of this commentary, each
artist follows in an existing track before he acquires his
own individuality. Which explained a good deal of the
attraction of the objects from Se1ior Mujica Gallo's
collection of pre-Columbian objects. exhibited at the
Arts Council Gallery under the title 'Peruvian Gold.'
Earliest of the 350 pieces on view dates from before the
4th century A.O. and the latest from the Inca civilization
of the 14th to 16th centuries. The chief differences lie
in the two methods of working the gold: hammering
and soldering together of flat sheets and casting by the
cire perdu method. The first method was the most
popular by far and. in the exhibition. the wafer-thin
metal seemed to be no more substantial than foil. In the
figurines the almost childlike imagery takes on a
savage character that reminds us of the twentieth

century metal sculptures of Gargallo and Gonzalez.
Masks. ear-rings, pendants. cups. bowls. all are worked
with a directness and variety in the repoussee pattern­
ing. None the less it has often a refinement of modelling
that reduces facial features to the minimum. Thus we
have a monolithic sternness in the vase shaped with a
man's face only a few inches high.
Cameo Corner, one of Bloomsbury's favourite antique
jewellery dealers. has sponsored an adventurous scheme
for marketing the work of young British jewellery
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