What’s On
Marilynn Webb: Folded in the Hills
A major survey exhibition of Ngāpuhi, Te Roroa and Ngāti Kahu artist Marilynn Webb.
From Here on the Ground
Populated places and cityscapes converge with backyards, factories and remote railway stops. Open now!
Cora-Allan: Encountering Aotearoa
A major body of new work that considers the whenua from the vantage point of the moana.
Open 7 days, 10am - 5pm
Late night Wednesday until 9pm
Free entry, free wifi
Notes
Belgian Refugees by Frances Hodgkins
This article first appeared in The Press on 28 February 2007
Belgian Refugees is one of the first oil paintings that Frances Hodgkins ever exhibited, although at the time she was already well accustomed to showing her watercolours. Working in oils and tempera on canvas, she used an experimental technique in this work that gained much from her experience with watercolour. Believed to have been first shown as Unshatterable, in October 1916 at the International Society's Autumn Exhibition in London, the choice of title would suggest a greater sense of resilience than is actually conveyed by this family group. Here only the baby is oblivious to trouble, while his nursing mother seems devoid of expression, and the older children tense with anxiety or fear. Behind the group, a gap in the swirling grey suggests the fact of a missing father, and this steam and smoke speaks of displacement, the atmospheric backdrop of a train station or the symbolic clouds of war. Within the wall of monochrome, intense colour is reserved for mother and child, who also remind of one of Hodgkins' favourite early choices of subject matter in watercolour.
Notes
Tomoe Gozen pulling the ear of Nagase Hangan in the presence of Tezuka Tarô Mitsumori, Kiso Yoshina
This article first appeared in The Press on 1 November 2006
Standing beneath a leafy bough, and immaculately attired in swathes of red and blue, a petite Japanese woman looks down, bends - and does a surprising thing. Beneath her, and apparently at her mercy, is a traditional samurai warrior, a large and muscular man. The woman, however, pinches the lobe of his ear and inflicts excruciating pain. It is a curious scene. As an ‘ukiyo-e' woodblock print, it is the central panel of a triptych by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861).
Notes
St Brendan and the Sea Monsters by Robert Gibbings
This article first appeared in The Press on 14 December 2005
At just 14 cm tall, the exquisite St Brendan and the Sea Monsters by Irish-born Robert Gibbings (1889-1958) is one of the smallest works in Christchurch Art Gallery's collection, but carries with it some of the largest tales. A rhythmic composition of swirling sea serpents, stingrays and sharks, this finely-crafted woodcut print tells the story of 6th century Irish explorer-monk St. Brendan, or Brendan the Navigator, whose recorded travels were an important part of medieval European folklore, and which continue to fascinate.
Notes
Large Kitchen Composition by Michael Smither
This article first appeared in The Press on 8 June 2005
In 1965, when Large Kitchen Composition was painted, Michael Smither was a young, emerging artist on the verge of broader success. Since completing studies at Elam Art School in 1960, he had held a number of solo shows in Auckland, New Plymouth and Wellington, returning to his hometown of New Plymouth in 1962, and marrying in 1963 (the future writer) Elizabeth. He was also a new father.
Notes
A Barn in Picardy by Frances Hodgkins
This article first appeared in The Press on 30 March 2005
In the spring of 1914, Frances Hodgkins looked out from the cool interior of a barn in Picardy, northern France, and shaped vigorous black lines into wandering hens, the corner of a farm wagon, rustic beams, the outline of a wall. Transparent watercolour wash covered the light-filled centre, while splashes of colour defined potted geraniums, fresh green leaves and pink blossom. Hodgkins had arrived in May at the tiny cliff-top village of Equihen, Boulogne-sur-Mer, to paint and teach from an artists' studio cottage perched high above the roar of the English Channel. While the setting of her studio - on the edge of the village by rolling farmland - delighted her, she had reached here with little will to paint, and very much in a state of shock.
Notes
Factory at Widnes by L.S. Lowry
This article first appeared in The Press on 13 October 2004
Laurence Stephen Lowry painted Factory at Widnes in 1956, at which time he was Britain's most famous living painter. Lowry's fame increased in that year as he became the subject of a BBC television documentary, though his work had already been popular in British homes and schools as reproductions since the end of the war. If appreciation for his individualistic painting style was widespread, there was also fascination with L.S. Lowry the artist, who had projected in the press the image of a lonely recluse.