Uplifting artistry

These are the opening words of Ellen Graubart's thoughts on her own work in the catalogue for her current exhibition.

She is a painter who certainly creates exquisite beauty by using shimmering geometric shapes, symmetries and the illusion of translucence in her celebration of life and nature. She rages against the brutalities and callousness of governments, challenging their world view by revealing just how beautiful and sensual our world is - or could be.

Graubart is an artist who is impossible to categorise. She crosses artistic boundaries with impunity, but always remains true to her own vision. While it is not difficult to see links to Cezanne, Picasso, Braque and Klee in her work, it is always in the form of taking their ideas forward, not mere imitation or plagiarism.

She undoubtedly has a sophisticated knowledge and command of artistic genres, but, in her own work, she achieves what so many artists attempt to do but fail - a command of form and technique that allows one to recapture a childlike naivety, only possible with intellectual honesty, lack of hypocrisy or pretentiousness.

Graubart was born in India of US parents, travelled with them in Latin America and then lived in Virginia as a teenager before settling as an adult in London, where she now lives and works.

She clearly frets about producing "only" pleasing images in a world torn asunder by war, thus two of her paintings in this exhibition do depict war. In these, she also uses geometric components, but here they introduce a harshness, very unlike the soft symmetry of her other paintings.

In the '70s, Graubart trained as a dancer and she has designed sets for Elizabeth Lutyen's opera Isis and Osiris in a production by Focus Opera, as well as appearing in several musical theatre pieces herself. The fact that many of her paintings depict dancing or flowing figures and that her tonalities and colours have an ethereal, musical quality is perhaps a reflection of this background and interest.

She is a deeply questioning and probing artist who is able to express strong emotions directly through colour and form. Her paintings are a paean to the best sides of humanity and a cry of desperation for peace and harmony.

If you wish to be uplifted and experience pure aesthetic and sensual pleasure, go and see this exhibition.

Exhibition runs at The Millinery Works Gallery, 85-7 Southgate Road, London N1 until May 4. Open 11am-6pm Tuesday to Saturday and 12-5pm on Sunday.

JOHN GREEN