Galleries: Bringing out the voyeur in the viewer

Times –

… Finally, a last chance — just until Saturday — to see a show of unusual delicacy, refinement and, for want of a better word, charm. And all — the paintings and the drawings anyway — completely and happily abstract. The artist is Jonathan Gibbs, last seen in London at the lamented Holsworthy Gallery, and he is non-representational in a way that very few of his generation (the early thirties) are: i.e., there is no appreciable indication of landscape lurking in the background of his works, not even that they may be like measured drawings for some unexecuted construction. The images exist with perfect comfort in two dimensions, displaying the maker’s exquisite slightly Deco sense of colour (with particular enjoyment of brick reds and slate blues), and should be ideally easy to live with.

From the portfolio of wood engravings we discover that Gibbs is also an accomplished draughtsman when he wishes to be, and that is perhaps the explanation of the show’s general air of ease and tranquillity: it expresses a talent totally at home in its own chosen limits. And yet still developing: he has come a long way since last seen four years ago. A paradox: but one that only spices enjoyment.

by John Russell Taylor
The Times 30.7.1985