SIGNIFICANT WORKS

SIGNIFICANT WORKS 23 June - 18 July 2012

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

Milford Galleries Dunedin 18 Dowling Street (03) 477 7727 info@milfordhouse.co.nz

CONTENTS 1

Don Binney

22

Neil Frazer

2

Paul Dibble

23

Garry Currin

3

Reuben Paterson

24

Darryn George

4

Dick Frizzell

25

Christine Webster

5

Ann Robinson

26

Gary Waldrom

6

Michael Hight

27

John Parker

7

Ralph Hotere

28

Trevor Moffitt

8

Karl Maughan

29

Ann Robinson

9

Terry Stringer

30

Reuben Paterson

10

Robert Ellis

31

Lonnie Hutchinson

11

W D Hammond

32

Mike Petre

12

Galia Amsel

33

Joanna Braithwaite

13

Nigel Brown

34

Neil Dawson

14

Michael Smither

35

Ralph Hotere

15

Shane Cotton

36

Michael Hight

16

Christine Webster

37

Galia Amsel

17

Neil Dawson

38

Karl Maughan

18

Dick Frizzell

39

Raymond Ching

19

Mervyn Williams

40

Paul Dibble

20

Robin White

21

Hannah Kidd

Pricelist

DON BINNEY 1

Petroica, Mill Creek (2001) oil & acrylic on canvas frame: 950 x 644 x 48 mm signed & dated “MMI” bottom left

The tomtit first appeared in Don Binney’s early paintings of the 1960’s. Petroica Mill Creek (2001) is a mature and more distinctive work (with celebratory flourishes and glorious colours) in which his signature style of reductive treatment of the forms of the bird and landscape come to establish remarkable harmonies and rhythms. The exaggerated scale of the bird, strong tonal contrasts, sharp outlines and the emphasised role performed by the patterns of the bird’s plumage imbue the tomtit with symbolic meaning and presence. Binney assuredly conveys the essence of the Stewart Island landscape and the Mill Creek vista out to Foveaux Strait whilst the tomtit is held forward and aloft in the upper half space.

Provenance

Private Collection, Dunedin

Exhibited

Cross Water, Milford Galleries Dunedin, 2001 Don Binney - Forty Years On, toured 2003-05, The Dowse Art Museum, Auckland City Gallery, Waikato Museum, Te Manawa and Hawkes Bay Art Gallery and Museum

Published

Damien Skinner, Don Binney: Nga Manu/Nga Motu – Birds/Islands, Auckland University Press, 2003, Plate 74

PAUL DIBBLE 2

Corten Steel Construction with Owl and Moon (2012) corten steel & cast bronze size: 2675 x 670 x 670 mm edition 1 of 2 signed, dated & “NZ” inscribed on base

A bronze crescent moon, contemplative owl and a trio of piwakawaka all find perches on Paul Dibble’s tree of Corten steel. ‘Owl and Moon’ is a study in carefully balanced juxtapositions. The smooth curves of the fantails, the plasticity of both moon and owl, and the angled geometry of the branches play with form and space, and these spatial contrasts are echoed in the apposition of the steel’s rusted finish and the rich burnish of the bronze.

Dibble’s sculptures often invite reflection on the natural environment and the often destructive role of the hand of man. Considering this, ‘Owl and Moon’ becomes a paradox: the hand of man is evident in each feather, branch and form, but it is a force for creation not destruction. Dibble’s ‘tree,’ all straight lines and angles, remains a reminder however, of the ongoing industrialisation of the land and its impact on us all.

Provenance

Received from the artist

REUBEN PATERSON 3

Button Down (2012) glitter & synthetic polymer on canvas stretcher (ø x d): 1504 x 38 mm signed & dated verso

Reuben Paterson’s artistic reach and technical mastery in the use of glitter has propelled his practice to national significance and international prominence.

Button Down is a remarkable work in which the unique chromatic qualities of glitter and modelling of shape induces powerful allusions to 3D volume. The work has joyous sensations, gestural flourishes and ambiguous spatial depth.

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

House of Rainbow, Milford Galleries Dunedin, 2012

DICK FRIZZELL 4

Ochre Tiki (1998) oil on linen frame: 1090 x 910 x 55 mm stretcher: 800 x 650 x 35 mm signed, dated “9/8/98” & titled bottom left

From their first outing in a landmark 1992 exhibition, Frizzell’s series of tiki works turned the New Zealand art world on its head. As a Pakeha refiguring a Maori cultural icon (albeit one that had been bastardised and commercialised) Frizzell instigated a torrent of political, cultural and social debate that changed the way New Zealand looked at its art traditions. Painting tiki in the style of the ‘greats’ of twentieth century art – Miro, Picasso, Braque – he engendered discussions about cultural (mis)appropriation, bicultural cross-fertilisations, art as design, and the politicisation of New Zealand art to name but a few. It was crucial that these issues began to be addressed and Frizzell continues to do so to this day.

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

Melbourne Art Fair, 1998 Dick Frizzell: Selected Paintings 1981-2009, milford galleries queenstown, 2011

ANN ROBINSON 5

Landscape Bowl (2009/12) cast glass size: 396 x 490 x 245 mm signed, dated, numbered “1/1” & “New Zealand” etched under base The Landscape Bowl is one of Ann Robinson’s most celebrated forms. Acknowledged as one of the truly great glass artists of the world, Robinson’s visual language reveals supremacy of form and design, botanical rhythms, and an explicit dialogue about naturalism and the environment.

Viewed from above, the elongated shape of the bowl is seed-like. The ­colour and tonal expression varies considerably (in accordance with light source and alteration of glass mass) from a bronze hue to moss green.

The sides (inside and out) have been acid-etched, the top lip polished. On each outer surface, Robinson has added three lacebark leaves. This major new development in her work has added a significant dialogue about decay and renewal. The skeletal form of the lacebark leaf takes on the character of a tattoo inscribed into the metaphorical surface of the land.

colour of dichroic glass under fluorescent light >

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

Celebrating the Recession, Milford Galleries Dunedin 2009. Reworked 2012

MICHAEL HIGHT 6

Coronet Peak (2011) oil on linen stretcher: 760 x 1220 x 33 mm titled bottom left, signed & dated bottom right signed, dated & titled verso

The transitory, seasonal aspects of the natural world are a strong subtext in Hight’s works. Although he depicts a singular moment, the mutability of what he portrays is implicit in the faded paint of the beehives, not to mention the lifecycles of the bees they house. In Coronet Peak summer has already turned with autumn hues on show, snow already on the hilltops and the sheep mustered in.

Hight paints the land in stunning clarity; he uses deft chiaroscuro to create sharply textured hills and weathered mountains. The sharp lines and regular geometry of the hives are obviously at odds with the natural surroundings, yet they do not seem out of place. Hight limits his palette so that the colours of the hives are of a similar spectrum to the surrounding land, suggesting that these man-made objects do have a natural home in the landscape. This idea is further enhanced by the drunken lean of many beehives as well as the haphazard clusters whose placement appears to have little rhyme or reason.

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

Michael Hight: Recent Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin, 2012

RALPH HOTERE 7

Winter Solstice (1988) stained glass in wooden window frame frame: 1175 x 985 x 42 mm signed & dated bottom right

Winter Solstice hung in Ralph Hotere’s Observation Point studio until the headland and studio along with it were compulsorily taken over by the Port of Otago.

Catching the light in the Aramoana-facing window, it was a part of the artist’s daily life and was not exhibited until after the destruction of the studio.

One of the largest of Ralph Hotere’s stained glass works, the wooden window frame of Winter Solstice places this piece firmly in a narrative that began with his ‘Black Window’ series of the early eighties. The densely coloured German float glass appears almost black when not illuminated but glows intensely when lit. The ‘arms,’ at first appearing as dark rivulets set in blue, reveal themselves in a show of scarlet against an ultramarine border and the umber fluctuates through dark and light in the central and top panels.

On one level seen as pure abstraction of line and colour, the configuration of rectangular forms is one seen again and again in Hotere’s work. Figurative drawing distilled to its purest essence, suggestive of landforms or the human figure or both, it draws together the threads of the artist’s own spiritual attachment to his environment and his symbolic representation of mankind’s place in the world.

Hotere appropriates the imagery of the Catholic faith of his childhood and his use of cruciform shapes, metaphorically-laden colours, and a sense of repeated ritual infuses his work with undertones of a personal religiosity.

Provenance

Private collection, Christchurch

Exhibited

Aero Club Gallery, Port Chalmers, c1990

KARL MAUGHAN 8

Pohangina East (2011) oil on linen stretcher: 915 x 915 x 33 mm signed, dated & titled verso

The foreground of this work is dominated by bursts of scarlet rhododendron blooms, Maughan’s signature flower. Seen up close, Maughan’s vivid layering of colour becomes an abstracted investigation of tone and hue. “Rather than blending colours, he uses clean colours side by side, this ‘alla prima’ (wet onto wet) technique was popular with the Impressionists.” (1) The hand of the ­painter is clearly evident in his deft placement of bursts of lime or orange or white to highlight details of flower and foliage. Tiny pools of ultramarine shadows step along the path at the side of the work, drawing the gaze onwards.

The energy of Maughan’s brushstrokes along with his self-assured use of luminous colour have created a painting of complexity and depth.

1. Natalie Poland, Manawatu Art Gallery information sheet, April 1998

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

Oroua Valley, Milford Galleries Dunedin, 2011 Karl Maughan: Recent Works, milford galleries queenstown, 2012

TERRY STRINGER 9

Art and Nature Study (2012) cast bronze size: 2270 x 600 x 600 mm edition 1 of 2 signed, dated & numbered at base

This is part of an ongoing series that sees Stringer examining the interrelationship between a set of figures in a single work. Sprung from a communal base, the forms of a woman, child and a hand are interleaved, and Stringer exploits space so that the viewer is required to interact physically with the artwork in order to experience it fully. Moving around the sculpture, eyes slide over the elegant, elongated surfaces searching for a single focal point and settle for a while on the shared edges where one figure morphs into another.

The narrative by Art and Nature Study is as ambiguous as the form of the work itself. Stringer invites us to experience the physical sculpture from a series of perspectives, and by doing so we recognise the multiplicity of overlapping ­stories, each relative to and drawing upon one another. We see manifold ‘truths’, each defined by where we stand.

Provenance

Received from the artist

ROBERT ELLIS 10

Conjunction IV (1974) acrylic on canvas frame: 1550 x 1393 x 67 mm signed & dated lower left; signed, dated & titled verso

Robert Ellis’ Motorways period (1960-74) has been called “one of the most sustained and significant contributions to painting in New Zealand,” (1) and it has also been said that “the last four years of paintings in the Motorways series must be counted as the best – confident, dramatic, mature, diverse and exciting.”_(2) Painted in 1974, Conjunction IV reveals an urban chaos that is (presently) under tight control. The tangle of overlapping grids possesses a teeming energy and seems barely held in check by its thin borders. In complete contrast to the dull, scored lines of the cityscape, Ellis uses washes of intense colour and undefined, amorphous forms to suggest an environment that remains as yet untouched by industry and urbanisation.

1. Warwick Brown, “A Motorway Journey, Paintings by Robert Ellis,” Art New Zealand, No. 34, 1985, p.36 2. Ibid. p.40

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

Barry Lett Galleries, c1974/75 One Point One: Robert Ellis and the late Buck Nin, Whangarei Museum, 2007

W D HAMMOND 11

Fly (1999) acrylic on canvas frame: 835 x 685 x 23 mm canvas: 545 x 405 mm signed, dated & titled upper left

“Seldom has New Zealand produced an artist with such a unique pictorial language” (1) as Bill Hammond.

“Hammond’s acute eye for the macabre and the beautiful conflate in … his signature bird creatures, watching, waiting and poised … and it is through their depiction that Hammond is able to deliver an analysis of humanity … the birds rise above us through a world of limbo where, regal and godlike, they remain…” (2) Fly is a potent mix of myth, anthropomorphism and transformation. We witness a ‘birdman-child’ - held aloft by an angel-figure wearing sunglasses and underpants – and come to realise he is about to take his first flight. This event stands suspended in time, and an angelic message emerges hinting at ­redemption and offering hope.

1. Jenny Harper, Foreword in Bill Hammond, Jingle Jangle Morning, Christchurch Art Gallery, 2007, p.11 2. Jennifer Hay, “Jingle Jangle Morning,” ibid p.17

Provenance

Private Collection Dunedin

GALIA AMSEL 12

Floe 8 (2012) cast glass, sandblasted, acid etched, hand smoothed & polished size: 510 x 580 x 167 mm

Galia Amsel is an internationally significant glass artist who has been a NZ resident now for over a decade. Her work is represented in prestigious public gallery and museum collections worldwide.

Floe 8 is beguiling. Narratives of natural event and perpetual motion emerge.

A ‘being there’ experience arises. Moments of wonder build.

“Her technical mastery … allows for graduations of colour and transparency, that make the work vibrate with light.” (1) Amsel’s highly developed visual sense and spatial harmonies are founded in geometry and evidenced here in her bold exploration of a triangulated, altering shape that is also an open circle. The work is wonderfully expressive and atmospheric. Amsel has worked the surfaces in markedly different ways and because of this the movement of light around and through the work is acutely controlled whilst also defining shape and substance.

1. Dan Klein, Changing Views, 2007

Provenance

Received from the artist

NIGEL BROWN 13

Madonna Mountain (2007/08) oil & stainless steel on linen frame: 1399 x 850 x 59 mm signed & dated “08” lower right signed, dated, titled, & background notes inscribed verso

Within its multiple frames of wood, steel, words and painted landscape, Nigel Brown’s Madonna stares out at the viewer implacably, protective hand over the Child held against her breast. Brown regularly reimages traditional tropes to give voice to his own, distinctly New Zealand, social and environmental concerns. As well as his obvious allusion to the Virgin Mary of Christianity, the central female figure evokes other earth mother goddesses: Papatuanuku of Maori mythology, Roman Ceres and Greek Demeter.

Female fecundity and the fertility of the land are intrinsically tied together in Madonna Mountain, and Brown’s balanced composition reinforces this. The visual formality gives his messages weight and gravitas, while his use of colour-blocking, gold paint and the arched form is reminiscent of both stained glass and religious iconography. Traditional Maori koru forms, emblems of new, ­unfurling life, place his work in a determinedly New Zealand landscape while the billowing curtains on either side of the Madonna enhance her position ‘centre stage’. Surrounded by dully, gleaming stainless steel, Brown’s lush golds and greens are rich with life.

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

All Our Days, Milford Galleries Dunedin, 2009

MICHAEL SMITHER 14

Kawaroa Paddling Pool (1998) oil on board frame: 1236 x 1819 x 24 mm signed & dated bottom left corner

Michael Smither’s paintings are careful observations of the scenery of his life, be it the natural environment, domestic landscapes or the religious stories he grew up with. Born and raised in Taranaki, many of his paintings are intrinsically tied up with the geological and social narratives of this region, yet Smither was also able to capture the idiosyncrasies of the everyday and those he loved with a clear appreciation for the small, truthful moments of life.

Smither calls this work “A painting about thresholds” and describes it as a return to memories of his childhood in New Plymouth. (1) Filled with the Taranaki stones he has painted again and again, Kawaroa Paddling Pool reveals once more Smither’s meticulous technical and compositional skills. The sharp angles of pool, water and reflection dominate the painting’s centre and throw into high relief the curves and shadows of each carefully positioned stone. Within the sharp rectangular boundaries of the pool, purply-pink, weed-covered pebbles hint at teeming microcosms, while outside remains starkly barren. (2) 1. Michael Smither with Trish Gribben, Michael Smither: Painter, Ron Sang Publications, 2004, p.246 2. Ibid.

Provenance

Private collection, Christchurch

Published

Michael Smither with Trish Gribben, Michael Smither: Painter, Ron Sang Publications, 2004 Colour plate, p.247

SHANE COTTON 15

Point (1992) diptych; oil, encaustic & collage on plywood panels: 1205 x 290 x 22 mm each signed & dated verso each panel Point is an early, major work that expressed the “visceral, biological, specimen aspect of his Christchurch paintings” (1) but also hinted – in its allusive shape to blades and feathers – to the directly quoted and adapted political works that followed.

The biomorphic, organic qualities, structural disciplines and stylistic motifs – such as the banded circle, linear patterns and perimeter structures - so evident in Point have re-emerged in Cotton’s more recent works.

Point does not have an explicit narrative but allows the viewer many points of entry. The work presents notions of growth, contains debates about origin as well as visual elements of transformation and evolution. The “relationship between past, present and future is a consistent feature of Cotton’s work.” (2) There are intriguing visual tensions between above and below, light and dark; mark-making instructs the eye how to move and references the traditions of rock drawing and tree carving.

1. Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, “Kai te tiaho whetu I runga,” Introduction in Shane Cotton, Ed. Linda Tyler, Hocken Library, University of Otago, 1998, p.5 2. John Huria, “Metamorphic Vocabulary,” in Shane Cotton: Survey 1993-2003, City Gallery, Wellington, 2003, p.132

Provenance

Private Collection, Dunedin

Exhibited

Strata, Brook/Gifford Gallery, 1992 Hocken Library (University of Otago), 1998

CHRISTINE WEBSTER 16

Black Carnival #59 - Keng Bound in Red Silk (1993-97) cibachrome print: 2688 x 1049 mm from an edition of 2 signed, dated & “#59 Keng - Bound in Red Silk” & “Black Carnival #59 (Keng - Red Shroud - Bound in Red Silk)” inscribed verso

Christine Webster “uses photography and the adult body to demonstrate the complexity of gender, power relations and psychological states of being. She meditates on sexuality, but goes further to plumb the depths of desire through subconscious narratives.” (1) Webster’s theatrical Black Carnival (1993-97) series is arguably one of the most ambitious, distinctive and critically acknowledged photographic series produced by a New Zealander and it has been extensively exhibited. Her work is “moody, wry and defiantly festive.” (2) In Black Carnival # 59 Keng (Bound in Red Silk) returns the viewer’s gaze directly and makes no apology for the identity projected or challenged.

1. Anne Kirker, “Recurring Undercurrents,” Provocations: The Work of Christine Webster, Christchurch Art Gallery, 2010, p.81 2. Justin Paton, Flash Art News, June 1994, cited ibid, p.85

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

Black Carnival, toured 1994-95, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Wellington City Gallery, Waikato Museum, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Auckland City Gallery Black Carnival, Queensland Art Gallery, 1996 Black Carnival, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2002

NEIL DAWSON 17

Vortex 3 (2012) painted steel size (ø x d): 1660 x 225 mm signed, dated & titled on crate lid

Beneath the ordered geometries of Vortex 3 lies a sense of unavoidable collapse, as chair forms disappear inexorably into a central void. One of a series of works that Neil Dawson has been producing since earthquakes wreaked havoc on his hometown of Christchurch in 2010 and 2011, this sculpture evokes not only a sense of physical upheaval, but also suggests disintegration of the everyday social structures that order life.

Dawson tricks the viewers’ eyes into seeing smooth, swirling curves where there exist straight lines and multiple angles. His precise use of fractal images draws the gaze over and again into the centre of the work, the illusion of movement enhanced by the curvature of the sculpture’s surface. Vortex 3 provides a contemplative space to consider the paradox of ordered chaos present in both society and the natural environment.

Provenance

Received from the artist

DICK FRIZZELL 18

Burnt Stump (1999) oil on linen frame (v x h x d): 1230 x 1030 x 55 mm signed, dated “18/3/99” & titled bottom right

As a landscape painting, Burnt Stump encompasses multiple painterly techniques; a delicately worked copse of trees would not be out of place in a painting by Turner, but the energetic daubs of green in the foreground and the starkness of the stump, rendered in rich blacks and browns, owe more to the painters of the early twentieth century. Rich with commentaries, Frizzell plays with the landscape genre, questioning the traditional view of art’s history. He renders the Kiwi vernacular in oils - the viewer is literally ‘on this side of the black stump’ - and the stump’s central dominance in the work necessitates consideration about issues of land use, agriculture and the environment with which the artist is concerned.

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

Dick Frizzell: Selected Paintings 1981-2009, milford galleries queenstown, 2011

MERVYN WILLIAMS 19

Seeing Red (2012) acrylic on canvas stretcher: 914 x 913 x 33 mm signed, dated & titled verso

“Williams conjures up the sensation of different materials … denim, cotton, felt or satin … there is also the peculiar illusion … the impression, say, of drips, sloshes and ridges of thick paint, produced by the entirely contrary technique of patiently crafted tonal transitions. Or the canvas itself looks ruckussed up and creased, as if badly stretched. But as well as these hallucinations, Williams presents the reality of colour … the splendour, richness and lustre of colour…”

(1) “Williams’ paintings are full of pleasure and surprise. The pleasure derives from perceptual and tactile experience … It comes in two stages: the upfront, immediate impact of … shape and … colour, and then the slower, lingering, unfolding aftermath, in which the viewer is mesmerised by the enigma, the ambiguity and the resonances and associations of those seemingly simple shapes and colours.” (2) “Williams sets out to transcribe reality, not the reality we see but the reality we remember seeing … our memory … of touch, of texture, of the myriad images we have seen only as images, never in the flesh.” (3) 1. Edward Hanfling, Mervyn Williams: Twenty Years of Painted Illusion, Artis Gallery, 2010, p.4 2. Ibid, p.2 3. David Chin, Mervyn Williams: Shades of Meaning, Gow Langsford Gallery, 1999, p.13

Provenance

Received from the artist

ROBIN WHITE 20

Harbour Cone (1972) oil on canvas frame: 1062 x 1064 x 60 mm signed, dated & titled top right

Robin White shifted to Dunedin in 1971 and her works from that time regularly feature scenes from Otago Harbour, especially the distinctive volcanic peak of Harbour Cone. The majority of these are screenprints or works in watercolour, acrylic or pencil - White produced only two oil paintings depicting this particular subject. Harbour Cone is the first of these and has been in the same private collection since its purchase; the second was painted two years later (Florence and Harbour Cone) and has been in the collection of the ­Christchurch Art Gallery since its initial exhibition. (1)

This painting is a seminal work in White’s oeuvre. The distinctive outline of the Harbour Cone seen here went on to be reproduced again and again in White’s prints, drawings and paintings throughout the 1970s. It is an exceptional example of her use of flattened planes of strong colour, abstracted forms and clean outlines; these compositional devices work together to provide a formalised structure and visual clarity to the painting.

1. Alister Taylor, Robin White, New Zealand Painter, Alistair Taylor, 1981

Provenance

Private collection, Dunedin

Exhibited

Dawson’s Gallery, Dunedin, 11-25 August 1972, No 29

Published

Alistair Taylor, Robin White, New Zealand Painter, Alistair Taylor, 1981, Colour plate, p.49

HANNAH KIDD 21

Great Rack (Stag) (2008) steel rod, corrugated iron size: 2410 x 1870 x 1800 mm “Kidd’s works remind us we are New Zealanders and explore our relationships with each other and our environments” (1) Working in flattened corrugated iron, Hannah Kidd captures the essence of her subjects and her feel for the subtle nuances of musculature and movement is all the more exceptional given the unforgiving nature of the medium in which she works. Great Rack stands on two slender hooves and the ease of the stance belies Kidd’s technical expertise and the precision engineering she brings to the sculpture. The rough finish of the work, left in its original state, is reminiscent of rural outbuildings, and continues the narrative of the ‘great outdoors.’

Her proud stag, posed in a stance redolent of generic ‘bush’ paintings, evokes the grandeur and beauty of New Zealand’s forests. Kidd’s sense of irony is clear however - deer are introduced pests and destroy the native bush they inhabit.

Hunted and killed for their antlers, this stag, with its 22-point rack, is a fine example of a trophy head and Kidd plays with the idea of the ultimate ‘great rack’, achieved without exertion and divorced from the bloody business of the kill.

1. Warwick Brown, Seen this Century, Godwit, 2009

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

The Locals, Milford Galleries Dunedin, 2008 Heroic Gardens Festival, Auckland, 2009 Hannah Kidd - Beastly Delights, Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru, 2011

Published

Ursula Granmer, “Animals in Contemporary Art,” Celebrate Art, Vol 3, Issue 2, Integrated Education Ltd, 2010, p.19 Warwick Brown, Seen This Century, Godwit, 2009, colour plate, pp.216-217

NEIL FRAZER 22

Black Sand Valley (2008) acrylic on canvas stretcher: 1529 x 1525 x 27 mm signed, dated & titled verso

Neil Frazer has pioneered a method and style which is unique – he uses abstract expressionistic techniques, sculptor’s volume and painter’s depth as key components. A duality of spatial illusion and material literalness sits at the very heart of his acclaimed, masterful paintings and because of this they come to both describe and reveal. In Black Sand Valley he achieves the remarkable combination of pictorial realism, accuracy of belief and the unique specifics of place. It seems to have been built from the fundamental essences to be found there and has profound physical substance, three-dimensionality and enormity of scale. There are sophisticated textural dialogues and commanding use of impasto painting techniques. Frazer develops a very low line of sight and the sky is implied by his use of negative space as a silhouette.

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

Perfect Day, Milford Galleries Auckland, 2008

GARRY CURRIN 23

This Distance (2008/09) oil on canvas stretcher: 1015 x 1523 x 35 mm signed & dated & “This Distance - Kaipara” inscribed under bottom edge

To begin by suggesting Garry Currin is a magician who paints, foreshadows the alchemical nature of his work and suggests something of the discoveries which await every viewer. This Distance is astonishing – it shows a landscape bathed in luminous and golden light. An estuary emerges, darkness evaporates and structures float in and out of existence as if mirages. What has happened in this place? Nothing is fixed or final, everything changes as you watch.

Currin simultaneously reveals and conceals. Time is collapsed; the landscape seems to be a dream. “At times his paintings seem to well up from the surfaces they’re painted on like secretions … Currin teases and disrupts your attempts to ­establish reality of place … He offers you inventions which tease and ­tantalise with their elusiveness. The landmarks fluctuate, dissolving back into the paint before re-emerging as cloud, or surf, or waterspout.” (1) “It is hard to pin down the locations he depicts; each seem to be a fusion of plausible aspects and possible glimpses.” (2) 1. David Eggleton, “Garry Currin The Painter as Salvage Artist,” Art NZ, No. 94, 2000 2. David Eggleton, “Various Distances Apart” Art NZ, No. 138, 2011

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

Inland, Milford Galleries Dunedin, 2009

DARRYN GEORGE 24

Rata (2010) oil on canvas stretcher: 760 x 1012 x 35 mm signed, dated & titled verso

Darryn George has built a visual language of contemplation, “bold in contrast and graphic in effect.” (1) He uses repetition as a pulsing device and as a compositional element. There are exquisite subtleties of surface texture referencing the ridges of carving, and a visual register that is ambiguous, where forms advance and recede, and positive and negative switch roles. At the heart of his work sit three equally weighted impulses – elements of customary Maori carving, Christian symbolism and minimalist abstraction.

In Rata (meaning doctor as well as the tree) George uses the complexity of the lettering of the word, angle and scale variation, and polarity (with the word facing every direction) to suggest “many different manifestations of the nature and workings of God” (2) and so create “meditative passages with a spiritual or religious import.” (3) In this way, Darryn George has pioneered a unique stylistic convention where red, black and white function as cultural signifiers but also where he inserts substantial narratives into modernist abstraction.

1. Lara Strongman, “Conversations with the World,” Darryn George, Mihi Publishing, 2010, p.100 2. T.J. McNamara, “Power of Words,” NZ Herald, June 13, 2012 3. Strongman, op.cit, p.101

Provenance

Received from the artist

CHRISTINE WEBSTER 25

Black Carnival #52 - Tai Warrior (1993-95) cibachrome print: 2688 x 1035 mm from an edition of 2 signed, dated & “Tai Warrior #52 “ & “Black Carnival #52 (Taiaroa Royal as Warrior)” inscribed verso

“Webster’s works occupy the outer limits of what some might consider acceptable, subverting and challenging established conventions surrounding portraiture, the depiction of women and the privileged ‘male gaze’. The resulting images are like single moments stolen from a much longer story.” (1) In Black Carnival # 52 (Tai – Warrior) Webster continues her exploration of “the politics of the female gaze” elevating “women’s pleasure” to “an equal ­priority to that of men.” (2) Webster uses black gloss as a mirror pool, in front of which a single figure stands poised in the moment emerging ‘phoenix-like’ and with gaze averted.

1. Jenny Harper, Foreword, Provocations: The Work of Christine Webster, Christchurch Art Gallery, 2010, p.7 2. Anne Kirker, “Recurring Undercurrents,” ibid, p.82

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

Black Carnival, toured 1994-95, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Wellington City Gallery, Waikato Museum, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Auckland City Gallery Black Carnival, Queensland Art Gallery, 1996 Black Carnival, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2002

GARY WALDROM 26

Girl and Horse I (Second Series) (2008/09) oil on canvas stretcher: 1829 x 1220 x 34 mm signed, dated & titled verso

A self-taught painter, Gary Waldrom’s visual voice is unique in New Zealand.

Undermining the ‘facts’ of place, time and history, his landscapes are peopled with characters that are at once unnerving and strangely comical. Set against dilapidated, deserted buildings and a glowing sky, the incongruous pairing of a circus horse and a pixie-like, child-woman take centre stage in Girl and Horse_I. Inhabiting a twilight world, betwixt and between the boundaries of everyday life, Waldrom’s carnivalesque scene is at once familiar but eerily unreal. Here and there, now and then – these rational parameters are concealed beneath the saturated jewel-tones of Waldrom’s canvases as he juxtaposes “two more or less distant realities” (1) to create a work that at once unnerves and attracts.

A survey exhibition of Gary Waldrom’s paintings is in preparation; it will open at the Hastings City Art Gallery in February 2014 and then tour nationally.

1. Andre Breton, Surrealist Manifesto, 1924

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

New Works: Gary Waldrom, Milford Galleries Dunedin, 2009

JOHN PARKER 27

Still Life for Keith and Ernie #8 [11-1-13] (2009-11) 13 pieces; white glazed ceramic sizes variable artist’s stamp & “JP IX” / “JP X” / “JP XI” stamped at bases

John Parker is a craft potter – each piece is hand-made and unique. He throws and turns all his work on the potter’s wheel. His works are concerned with form, shape and space, including that between individual objects. He sees his work as part of a long continuum and in Still Life for Keith & Ernie #8 Parker is openly acknowledging stylistic debt to (Ernie) Shufflebotham and (Keith) Murray who worked together at Wedgewood in the 1930’s. In the 1940’s Shufflebotham worked at Crown Lynn in Auckland and was instrumental in establishing its iconic modernist style. On top of that important tradition John Parker has added his own forms and aesthetic, extending and building a significant vocabulary.

Provenance

Received from the artist

TREVOR MOFFITT 28

Embarrassed by Nature (1994) oil on hardboard frame: 649 x 947 x 28 mm signed & dated lower right; titled verso

Moffitt’s first series of Human Condition paintings dealt with the politics of adult sexual relationships, and caused heated discussion when they were first shown in the early 1970s. (1) In Human Condition Series II (based on the life-story of a girl known to the artist) Moffitt continues his exploration of topics with the potential to discomfit and unsettle. With a raw, uncensored eye, explicit sexuality, drunkenness, and drug dependency are depicted alongside the ballet classes, music lessons and school exchanges of adolescence.

“The young woman is given a blank face, she is both an everybody and a nobody, the viewer encouraged to insert an image familiar to them.” (2) Moffitt’s painting style is likewise open to the onlooker. Embarrassed by Nature appears simple; it features a clear structure with well-defined, outlines and easily recognisable forms. Moffitt eliminates extraneous details and the overall use of dark tones in the work focuses the gaze first on the schoolgirl with her cream shirt and blonde hair, only later does the eye shift to the rutting cattle that cause her to hide her face in mortification.

1. Ronayne, Chris. Trevor Moffitt: a biography, David Ling Publishing, 2006. p155 2. Mark Amery, Sunday Star Times, cited in Trevor Moffitt: a biography, ibid

Provenance

Private collection, Christchurch

Exhibited

Human Condition II, Canterbury Gallery, 1995

ANN ROBINSON 29

Twisted Flax Pod #44 (2011) cast glass & bronze size: 130 x 1270 x 410 mm signed, dated, numbered “#44” & “NZ” etched on glass at stem

In Robinson’s oeuvre, the Twisted Flax Pod is her most naturalistic form. Although the scale is significantly exaggerated, the artistic objective to present and celebrate the subtle turns and twists of the flax seed pod and the adjunct role of the stem is completely convincing and wonderfully delivered.

“The power of Ann Robinson’s work comes from its bold simplicity, its vivid colouring, its’ controlled forms. Her work contains the smell and presence of the flora and fauna of the NZ bush. Her environmental idiom and examinations of the natural world have established the devotional forms and subject of her work. There is a powerful sense of place, an undeniable presence of the artist’s point of view – art with a purpose and something to say.” (1) 1. Dan Klein, Artists in Glass: Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass, Mitchell Beazley 2001

Provenance

Received from the artist

REUBEN PATERSON 30

Whakapapa: Get Down on Your Knees (Reconfigured) (2009) tetraptych; glitter & synthetic polymer on canvas stretchers: 2002 x 2002 x 36 mm each signed & dated verso each panel

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited (including other configurations)

Asia Pacific Triennial, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2009/10 Whakapapa: Get Down Upon Your Knees, Tauranga Art Gallery, 2011 Bottled Lightening, Gus Fisher Gallery, University of Auckland, 2012

“Place in a broader sense – whakapapa – or genealogy has always been at the core of Paterson’s work.” (1) In this major work Paterson combines and forges visual connection between kowhaiwhai inspired motif and fabric patterns. In this way he is explicitly referencing his Maori father and Pakeha mother. Equally he is acknowledging that the personal speaks (in a broader social context) directly to issues of New ­Zealand’s unique identity and the particular sense of belonging created in that fluxing ­cultural ­dynamic.

Paterson’s use of glitter and thus light with its kinetic properties transforms the work – it becomes manifestly greater than a sum of its parts. The monumental scale surrounds the viewer and the experience of the works’ presence falls upon one like a protective cloak.

1. Dan Chappell, Diamond Dust and Ancestral Stories, Art News, Spring 2011, p.74

LONNIE HUTCHINSON 31

Comb (Red) (2009) steel, automotive paint size (v x h x d): 980 x 1095 x 190 mm edition 3 of 6

Lonnie Hutchinson’s scarlet-painted Pacific comb confronts the viewer with a raw take on female sexuality. The nude form cut into the steel is taken from an earlier work, Black Pearl, which “refers directly to the incarceration of Island women in the holds of Pearl Traders. This bleak history of sexual exploitation has important and on-going ramifications in terms of the sex industry today; while also commenting upon the stereotypical image of the so-called ‘available’ Polynesian women.” (1) Reconfigured for the equally provocative My Mother (which took the word “motherfucker” as its starting point), Hutchinson continues to explore topics surrounding colonisation of the Pacific, the objectification of women and their place in the traditionally white, middle-class art world.

1. Lonnie Hutchinson, cited on http://www.jonathansmartgallery.com/content/view/30/38/ accessed 13/6/12

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited (including other editions)

My Mother, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch, 2009 Selected Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin, 2012 Home AKL, Auckland Art Gallery/Toi o Tamaki, 2012

Published

Christopher Moore, “Not for the faint-hearted,” The Christchruch Press, April 2009

MIKE PETRE 32

Field Study 193 (2011) ink, graphite, oil & acrylic on canvas stretcher: 1222 x 1678 x 38 mm signed, dated & titled verso

Mike Petre does not seek to portray a romanticised version of rural life; his stark paintings of cows confront the viewer with the actuality of these creatures as cattle: an industrialised commodity that is bred, traded and killed. Petre’s abstracted cattle have solidity and mass; monochromatic and deceptively simple, the artist directs the gaze of the animals onto the viewer, engendering “a degree of scrutiny many would be unfamiliar (if not uncomfortable) with… the reality of raising animals for slaughter and viewing the land for production necessitates objectification.” (1) Using fast-drying Indian ink as well as oil and acrylic paints, the long drips of pigment, sketched graphite outlines and confident brushstrokes of the artist give the paintings a sense of immediacy and life. Iconic reminders of New Zealand’s agricultural roots, Petre’s Field Study works in restrained black and white have tapped into the national psyche.

1. Artist’s Statement, 2002.

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

The Earl Street Journal, milford galleries queenstown, 2011

JOANNA BRAITHWAITE 33

Moon Watch (2003) oil on canvas stretcher: 840 x 1065 x 24 mm signed, dated & titled verso

“The world of Joanna Braithwaite’s painting is part menagerie, part bestiary, and part human zoo. In her richly brushed canvases, the laws of nature are calmly bent and wonderful hybrids emerge.” (1) “Braithwaite’s image of an egg-man, balanced precariously on a slender branch, is at once hopeful and bittersweet.” (2) In Moon Watch, a journey of wonder begins, in which dream and circumstance gently battle each other. Braithwaite’s characteristic, signature, anthropomorphism confounds and disorientates. Elements of the surreal and “a trapped consciousness” (3) add to the unease. The light of the moon shines upon the face of the egg shell as the trapped man looks up in awe.

1. Author unidentified, Wonderland Joanna Braithwaite, Christchurch Art Gallery and Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2005 2. Felicity Milburn, Strange and True, Wonderland Joanna Braithwaite, p.40 3. Bridie Lonie, The Island of Dr. Braithwaite, NZ Listener, 23 April, 2005

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

Wild Things, Milford Galleries Auckland, 2003

NEIL DAWSON 34

Whare (2010) screenprinted & powdercoated stainless steel whare: 520 x 720 x 755 mm edition 3 of 5 Produced as part of Neil Dawson’s 2010 DECK: Second Hand exhibition, Whare is truly a house of cards. Made of stern stuff – despite the card imagery, it is ­obvious that the work is metal, held together by screws and rivets - this wharenui has been cast adrift from its spiritual moorings. “When you enter a whare, you are not entering an ordinary building, but the body of an ancestor, whose arms (maihi) are outstretched, ready to embrace you.” (1) This house is not an embracing tupuna, it does not tell the stories of those who came before and, with neither door nor window, it has no mouth or eye with which to speak or see.

Whare opens (sometimes uncomfortable) narratives about biculturalism, ­social structures and cultural appropriation. Referencing the use of diamonds and hearts, clubs and spades by the Ratana church and Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana, Dawson blurs cultural traditions and artistic boundaries. Poised ­between delicate balance and imminent collapse, his whare of cards invites careful consideration of relationships between tangata whenua and ­European New Zealanders in the past, present and years to come.

1. http://www.maori.org.nz/tikanga/default.php?pid=sp31&parent=26. Accessed 6/6/12

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited (including other editions)

Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, 2009 Deck: Second Hand, Milford Galleries Dunedin, 2010

Published

Lee Suckling, “The Sky’s the Limit,” Art News, Summer, 2009, colour photograph, p.52

RALPH HOTERE 35

Let us Weep - for His is Not the Death of the Moon From Te Whiti Series (1972) acrylic & ink on paper frame: 980 x 633 x 35 mm image: 562 x 362 mm signed & dated bottom right

The Te Whiti Series was commenced by Hotere at the suggestion of James Mack and was a response to Te Whiti’s teachings and the sacking of Parihaka.

He incorporates a traditional proverb, invokes Te Whiti’s spiritualism and places Maori text above and below the horizon line whilst the horizon line itself suggests the destruction of fire is coming.

Provenance

Private Collection, Auckland

MICHAEL HIGHT 36

Tararua Range (2009) oil on linen stretcher: 840 x 2000 x 37 mm titled bottom left, signed & dated bottom right signed, dated & titled verso

In Tararua Range, Michael Hight captures a single instant in New Zealand’s ­rural vernacular. He shows us a land that appears empty at first glance: individual blades of grass are motionless and twigs bare of leaf, no bees crawl over the boxy hives and the dust lies undisturbed on the metal road. The richness and life of the landscape is revealed however, in the nuances of Hight’s brushwork, the strength of his composition and the subtleties of his conversation about the very nature of the land and our relationship to it. At once intimate and grand, his paintings speak to us of not only where we live, but how we live there.

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

Michael Hight: Recent Painting, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington, 2010

GALIA AMSEL 37

Grow 4 (2010) cast glass, hand smoothed & polished size: 628 x 540 x 120 mm signed, dated & titled on side along bottom edge

Fluidity and a sense of movement characterise Galia Amsel’s cast glass sculptures. The work Grow 4 is poised on its base, stable but suggestive of balletic movement in its construction and form. (1) The arms reach upwards and the eye can’t help but follow the smooth, curved planes as they narrow to delicate slices of glass. These twisted flat surfaces evoke the improbable lines of a Mobius band and capture the shifting tensions contained within the sculpture.

Reminiscent of water, streaks of glowing green and streams of bubbles seem to rise from a solid base of colour. Traditionally eschewed in cast glass, these ­static bubbles counter the density of the medium with the illusion of lively ­activity. Amsel captures light and colour in a single tangible form, all the while keeping true to their quicksilver natures.

1. Dan Klein, Changing Views, 2007

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

Traverse, Milford Galleries Dunedin, 2011

KARL MAUGHAN 38

Southland (2012) oil on linen stretcher: 1218 x 2133 x 33 mm signed, dated “Jan 2012” & titled verso

Maughan once more invites the viewer down the garden path as it leads off into the leafy shadows of his massed rhododendrons. Heightened by the regular, rounded forms of the bushes and trees and the too-perfect stillness of the scene, a sense of unreality pervades Southland. As shadows creep across the canvas, barely held at bay by the vibrancy of the painted flowers, feelings of disquiet and foreboding well up. Enticing as it might be to step down that bright path, Maughan’s painting hints at things concealed beneath the ‘­pretty’ surface of his tightly controlled landscape of unease.

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited

Karl Maughan: Recent Works, milford galleries queenstown, 2012

RAYMOND CHING 39

The Crowing Cockerel, the Fox and the Wallaby (2007) oil on canvas on panel frame: 1380 x 1685 x 20 mm titled bottom right

In this work, Ching defies the very realism for which he is best known by placing his exquisitely painted creatures in a setting that makes no pretence of reality at all. At first glance, allusions to the German fable Die Bremer ­Stadtmusikanten and its tower of animals seem obvious, but any clues as to the presence of a wallaby and a fox rather than the donkey, dog and cat remain hidden. Ching’s incongruous juxtaposition of expository text, vintage comic book i­magery and stunningly realist portraiture hints at a multiplicity of stories that require patience and close attention to decode.

Considered by many to be one of the best wildlife painters of the twentieth century, Raymond Ching’s career as an artist started with his first exhibition Thirty Birds in Auckland in 1966. Born 1939 in Wellington, Raymond Ching has spent much of his life in the United Kingdom where, still working, he is mostly based today.

Provenance

Received from Artis Gallery, Auckland

Exhibited

Autobiography, Artis Gallery, Auckland, 2008 The Surreal, Milford Galleries Dunedin, 2012

PAUL DIBBLE 40

Two Worlds (2010) cast bronze size: 665 x 238 x 135 mm edition 2 of 2 signed, dated, numbered & “NZ” inscribed on base

Two Worlds features Paul Dibble’s characteristic combination of realist and geometric forms, here especially apt as the sculptor explores the dichotomy ­expressed in the title. Two distinct worlds are immediately identifiable: that of nature, exemplified by the native piwakawaka, and that of man, ­dominated by angles and linearity. Rather than depicting these as mutually exclusive spheres however, Dibble plays with the complexities of relationships ­ between them.

Dibble’s birds perch at right angles, their fanned tails displaying ­natural symmetry of form. They dominate the construction while man strides below, dwarfed by both them and his fabricated world. Two Worlds reveals the ­necessary interplay between natural and built environments; neither exists in a vacuum and man must negotiate both.

Provenance

Received from the artist

Exhibited (including other editions)

A Birds’ Eye View, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, 2010

PRICELIST 1

Don Binney

Petroica, Mill Creek (2001)

2

Paul Dibble

Corten Steel Construction with Owl and Moon (2012)

40,000

3

Reuben Paterson

Button Down (2012)

18,000

4

Dick Frizzell

Ochre Tiki (1998)

75,000

5

Ann Robinson

Landscape Bowl (2009/12)

42,000

6

Michael Hight

Coronet Peak (2011)

15,000

7

Ralph Hotere

Winter Solstice (1988)

POA

8

Karl Maughan

Pohangina East (2011)

12,000

9

Terry Stringer

Art and Nature Study (2012)

45,000

10

Robert Ellis

Conjunction IV (1974)

11

W D Hammond

Fly (1999)

50,000

12

Galia Amsel

Floe 8 (2012)

16,000

13

Nigel Brown

Madonna Mountain (2007/08)

17,500

14

Michael Smither

Kawaroa Paddling Pool (1998)

POA

15

Shane Cotton

Point (1992)

32,500

16

Christine Webster

Black Carnival #59 - Keng Bound in Red Silk (1993-97)

17,500

17

Neil Dawson

Vortex 3 (2012)

39,000

18

Dick Frizzell

Burnt Stump (1999)

55,000

19

Mervyn Williams

Seeing Red (2012)

14,000

20

Robin White

Harbour Cone (1972)

21

Hannah Kidd

Great Rack (Stag) (2008)

POA

POA

POA 21,000

22

Neil Frazer

Black Sand Valley (2008)

16,000

23

Garry Currin

This Distance (2008/09)

14,000

24

Darryn George

Rata (2010)

25

Christine Webster

Black Carnival #52 - Tai Warrior (1993-95)

17,500

26

Gary Waldrom

Girl and Horse I (Second Series) (2008/09)

17,500

27

John Parker

Still Life for Keith and Ernie #8 [11-1-13] (2009-11)

28

Trevor Moffitt

Embarrassed by Nature (1994)

25,000

29

Ann Robinson

Twisted Flax Pod #44 (2011)

32,000

30

Reuben Paterson

Whakapapa: Get Down on Your Knees (Reconfigured) (2009)

75,000

31

Lonnie Hutchinson

Comb (Red) (2009)

16,000

32

Mike Petre

Field Study 193 (2011)

12,000

33

Joanna Braithwaite

Moon Watch (2003)

34

Neil Dawson

Whare (2010)

12,000

35

Ralph Hotere

Let us Weep - for His is Not the Death of the Moon (1972)

35,000

36

Michael Hight

Tararua Range (2009)

27,500

37

Galia Amsel

Grow 4 (2010)

14,500

38

Karl Maughan

Southland (2012)

27,500

39

Raymond Ching

The Crowing Cockerel, the Fox and the Wallaby (2007)

51,000

40

Paul Dibble

Two Worlds (2010)

12,000

All prices are NZD and include GST; Prices are current at the time of the exhibition

9,500

4,750

9,500