Lattice No. 61

The problem of finding the right format and procedural method is particularly important for painters of geometric abstraction. They require a structural language which remains faithful to the inherent properties of the physical support while still allowing room for variation and suprise. In New Zealand abstraction, Milan Mrkusich's corner paintings and Gordon Walters banded koru works meet this need particularly well. Ian Scott's application of the lattice format is equally ingenious. In the context of a Greenbergian formalist conversation, Scott's lattices reinforce their flatness continuously and in multiple directions at once. The edges where one striped band overlaps or dips under another are felt as optical tremors adding spring to the tight surface. At speed one can see the whole bright pattern, the competing chromatic units, then the whole taut grid again. Between 1976 and 1982, Scott worked a wide range of variations on this simple but efficient idea. Some lattices are monochromatic, others employ bands which change colour as they pass beneath another. Some are uniform, others multicoloured like military service ribbons. In Scott's earlier hard-edged Pop Realist paintings of figures in stylised landscapes, one can see a fascination for clean lines and up-beat bright colours. Scott finds this quality in the suburban Auckland landscape which might juxtapose a green lawn, a red roof, some white weatherboards, deck-chair fabric and blue sky. (from The Guide, 2001)

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