Exhibitions
Events
On display
Mary Kisler on Zipp by Frances Hodgkins
Frances Hodgkins Zipp 1945. Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1979
Talk
Past event
Philip Carter Family Auditorium
Free
Curator Mary Kisler focuses on Zipp by Frances Hogkins, including the artist's last years at Corfe Castle and the difficulties she overcame to paint some of her most progressive works.
Mary Kisler is an art historian, curator and author who worked at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki for 21 years. Her publications include Finding Frances Hodgkins (2019) and Angels & Aristocrats: Early European Art in New Zealand Public Galleries (2010).
Related
Exhibition
Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection
6 August 2022 – 21 July 2024
Making room for fresh voices, untold narratives and disruptive ideas.
Collection
Frances Hodgkins Zipp
Frances Hodgkins was seventy-seven years old when she painted Zipp in 1945, nearing the end of her career and life. It is one of the last paintings she completed. With its semiabstract shapes and forms set against a despairingly dark background, Zipp highlights how Frances continued to push herself as an artist even through her later years.
Seemingly random objects emerge through the gloom; some distinguisable, others abstracted beyond recognition: belts, a zip, a shoe and some clothing. These personal items belonging to the artist serve not only as a still life, but also as a kind of self-portrait. Most telling is the way they are scattered and heaped in a rumpled pile, perhaps symbolising the disorder in her life at this time.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )