The quick and lively tempo expected of this pace of music is captured by Yale in Vivace. Serpentine arabesques, techno-coloured, rhythmic lines play across the ground. Painted shortly after he...
The quick and lively tempo expected of this pace of music is captured by Yale in Vivace. Serpentine arabesques, techno-coloured, rhythmic lines play across the ground.
Painted shortly after he emerged from the Royal College, Vivace, when viewed in context with other selected exhibits for his first one-man show, Ascending, Step Up and Progression all share a continuity of theme focused on the figure moving through space.
Yale deliberately plays down the expressive hand of the artist in direct reaction against Abstract Expressionism. The high gloss of the paint further emphasises its uniformity of surface, and more importantly points to its hardware store origin. There is little painterly about these straight-from-the-tube colours, making Vivace appear closer to poster advertising than "high" art.
Opposed as Yale was to elitism in art, from 1964 to 1979 he teamed up with fellow artists John Berry, Roy Grayson and Mauro Kunst, operating as Group One Four. Together they set about making paintings more accessible and representative of everyday culture. Yale dedicated his career from 1968 to creating public art for the Greater London Council.