This exhibition is now closed
A major exhibition celebrating the breadth and diversity of Canterbury painting between 1990 and 2000.
Between 2 June and 6 August 2000, the Robert McDougall Art Gallery will showcase the work of 34 artists, all of whom, at some stage, resided and produced art work in the Canterbury region during the last decade. As a successor to the Canterbury Perspective exhibitions, which documented the development of Canterbury art from the 1850s to 1990, this exhibition will explore the breadth and diversity of contemporary painting during the 1990s. It will present a selection of painters both emerging and established, abstract and representational, expressing a wide range of concerns and themes. More than 20 of these artists will be represented by work from the Gallery's permanent collections and paintings by other artists will be borrowed from art institutions, dealer galleries and private owners.
Canterbury Painting in the 1990s contributes to the on-going dialogue concerning artists' varied relationships with Canterbury, initiated by previous exhibitions at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, such as Here and Now (1988), Recognitions (1991), Prospect Canterbury (1992), Drift North (1996) and Skywriters and Earthmovers (1998). An examination of the connections between painters and Canterbury in the 1990s provokes a different understanding of place and its importance within the context of their work. The artists' relationships vary from a life-long association, to a period of study, or teaching, at the School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury and a transitory experience, such as a residency, which may have contributed to experimental developments in their work. Christchurch has been constant in the lives of Alan Pearson, Don Peebles and Tony de Lautour, whereas to itinerants Kim Pieters, Luise Fong and Séraphine Pick, it will have made different impressions.
In addition to examining the influence of new technologies and pre-Millennial culture, Canterbury Painting in the 1990s also illustrates the multi-faceted nature of the work produced in Canterbury over the last decade. Varying individual approaches to abstraction, for example, can be seen in the works of Julia Morison, Don Peebles, Allan Pearson and Luise Fong. An interest in negotiating and re-contextualising New Zealand history is revealed as a significant theme in the work of several Canterbury artists (such as Bill Hammond, Grant Takle, Rudolf Boelee, Tony de Lautour and William Dunning) since 1990, yet the combination of their very personal styles and the use of idiosyncratic repertoires of iconography have resulted in works which are extremely distinct in appearance and effect. It is this very diversity, coupled with excellence, which indicates the continuing health of painting in Canterbury, and suggests a bright future post-2000.
Felicity Milburn
This exhibition was held at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery in the Botanic Gardens.
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Date:
2 June – 6 August 2000 -
Exhibition number:
678A
Collection works in this exhibition
Related reading: Bill Hammond
Notes
RIP Bill
All of us at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū were very saddened to hear of the death of Bill Hammond over the weekend. Bill’s contribution to the art of Aotearoa New Zealand was original and unforgettable and he occupied a special, beloved place within the arts communities of Christchurch and Lyttelton.
Notes
A Bird in the Hand
The Christchurch Art Gallery Foundation is honoured to assist the Gallery in acquiring Bill Hammond's Bone Yard Open Home for its permanent collection. But, we need your help!
Notes
De Lautour / Greig / Hammond
An exhibition of recent work by Tony de Lautour, Jason Greig and Bill Hammond opens at our NG space on Madras street tomorrow. These artists have had limited opportunities to show their work since the quakes so this exhibition is well worth a visit if you have the time.
Here's a taster of some of their work.
Commentary
The Edge of the Sea
A vision of New Zealand’s past from 1995:
Europeans first imagined New Zealand as “a garden and a pasture in which the best elements of British society might grow into an ideal nation”... When the smoke of the colonists’ fires cleared at the end of the 19th century, New Zealand had become a different country. Māori had lost their most precious life-support system. Only in the hilliest places did the forest still come down to the sea. Huge slices of the ancient ecosystem were missing, evicted and extinguished. Our histories, however, have had neither the sense of place nor ecological consciousness to explain what has happened.
Commentary
Doctor Jazz Stomp and the Webb Lane Sound
“Bill Hammond is long, lithe and tired, and was born several years ago. Is currently pursuing a Fine Arts course and trying hard to catch up. He is deeply interested in the aesthetic implications of sleep, sports the Rat-Chewed Look in coiffures for ’68, and dreams about blind mice in bikinis. He has never been known to sing outside the confines of his bedroom. Shows a marked but languid preference for the subtle textural nuances and dynamic shadings of washboard, cowbell, woodblocks, claves, cymbal, spoons, thimbles, tambourine, and the palms of the hands in percussive contact.”
Article
A miscellany of observable illustrations
Romantic notions of gothic leanings, the legacy of Tony Fomison, devotion to rock sub-genres and an eye to the past are familiar and sound reasons to group Tony de Lautour, Jason Greig and Bill Hammond together in one exhibition, but De Lautour / Greig / Hammond is to feature new and recent work. Could all this change? What nuances will be developed or abandoned? Will rich veins be further mined? We can only speculate and accept that even the artists concerned can't answer these questions. For the artist, every work is a new endeavour, a new beginning. What may appear to the public, the critic or the art historian as a smooth, seamless flow of images is for them an unpredictable process where the only boundaries are those that they choose to invent.
