VISUAL ARTS

Bryan Ingham is at Francis Graham-Dixon Gallery, 17-18 Great Sutton Street, London EC1 (0171-250 1962), to 7 Jun

Bryan Ingham is a popular painter, and a successful one, but his work has rarely been given the critical attention that it deserves. lronically, the reason for this neglect is probably the reason that his paintings are popular in the first place. They are accessible; they are decorative (in the best sense of the word) and they are full of recognisable art- historical associations. To his supporters this poses no problems; it places him in a useful context, but to his detractors it makes him at best unoriginal, at worst a mere pasticheur.

True, his work is rich in associations, but, as a new exhibition shows, they are not the defining characteristic. A picture like "Still Life Corbino" (right) can't avoid comparison with Ben Nicholson - a combination of the subject matter; a still life with a landscape behind suggesting very Nicholsonian ambiguities of interior and exterior space, and the way the picture is made; a mix of linear pencil lines, solid colour and areas scraped back to the ground - but the lasting effect is far from derivative.

This becomes much clearer when one considers several pictures at once. A first glance reveals an echo of Juan Gris, for example, or shades of Picasso and Kurt Schwitters, or a hint of Robert Rauschenberg in the grand- scale collaging of "A Large View of Tuscany and Pisa", but the strongest and most enduring voice that links them all is always lngham's own.

The new pictures have a denser and more complex quality than in some of his previous work. They may be popular, but they are also increasingly sophisticated and deeply satisfying. The associations come and go, but he is unquestionably his own man.

EYE ON THE NEW If you find yourself in west London in the mood for vodka, blinis and good abstract painting you could do worse that visit Wodka (12 St Albans Grove, London W8). Until 23 May their walls are hung with a fine selection of recent work by Alice Sielle.