Sylvester countered remarks by various critics that the artist's work was closer to sculpture than to painting: «in spite of the heaped - up paint, these are painterly images, not sculptural ones, have to be read as paintings, not as polychrome reliefs, and
make their point just because their physical structure is virtually that of sculpture but their psychological impact is that of painting» (Sylvester, «
Young English Painting», The
Listener, 12 January 1956).