Conflicting demands

This year, the sequence of galleries has been subtly altered, and for a change we enter the fabled Summer Exhibition (sponsored by Insight Investment) through the Octagon rather than Gallery 1.

The architecture room I leave for other experts, merely noting the preponderance of perforated forms and Piers Gough’s green glazed ceramic model for a Maggie’s Centre in Nottingham. Gallery VII contains a lovely group of four small cut bronze sculptures by Bryan Kneale, rather a good David Tindle of a phone off the hook on a single bed, and Eileen Hogan’s study of Ian Hamilton Finlay surrounded by a lot of words. A much-needed shaft of wit can be found in ‘Max Ernst’s Trampette’, carefully spiked by Midge Naylor. Gallery VIII, another sculpture room, is rather crowded, though a couple of Ivor Abrahams’s kiosk-beasts and a shelf of Geoffrey Clarke’s aluminium portals stand out, along with Frank Bowling’s large colour-filled abstract, Robin Greenwood’s sprawling steel ‘Capital and Labour’, and two powerful charcoal drawings by William Tucker.

In Gallery IX, a group of small paintings pays tribute to Leonard Rosoman’s poetic talent, while a splendidly crusty painting by Jeffrey Dennis is juxtaposed with Jeffery Camp at his most abstract: a dark vision of energies and explosions. Nearby, a large panorama of Dagenham by Jock McFadyen is beautifully painted. Gallery X ends the exhibition in a cacophonous hang like the worst old days of the summer show, pictures cancelling each other out, despite such potentially enjoyable things as flower paintings by George Rowlett and Sarah Armstrong-Jones. This is the weakest room in the 243rd Summer Exhibition, which generally stands up remarkably well to the conflicting demands that continue to beset it.