RAY CHING

RAY CHING

Aesop’s Kiwi Fables 16 February - 13 March 2013

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

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

1

The Crab in the Paddock (20120 oil on board, frame: 1071 x 1250 x 20 mm

2

The Little Fish and the Penguin (2012) oil on board, frame: 1075 x 1263 x 20 mm

3

The Student and Her Flowers (2010) oil on board, frame: 1086 x 1263 x 20 mm

4

The Barrel of Good Things (2012) oil on board, frame: 1238 x 1086 x 20 mm

5

The Two Pots (2010) oil on board, frame: 1072 x 1251 x 20 mm

6

The Leaves in the Wind (2010) oil on board, frame: 1084 x 1264 x 20 mm

7

The City Hedgehog and the Country Hedgehog (2008) oil on board, frame: 1085 x 1264 x 20 mm

Ray Ching, best known internationally for his startlingly realistic paintings of birds, has given Aesop’s fables and tradition an entirely new location and cast. Now, the anecdotes and fables are told by the inhabitants of New Zealand, mostly birds and in this way Ching is retelling, reinventing and reimagining them inside the cultural context, flora and fauna of this place.

This exhibition of eight works from the forty seven paintings completed (and featured in the accompanying book) demonstrates Ching’s rare visual dexterity; an astonishing mastery of disparate, complex elements; and a stylistic panache that effortlessly connects the riddle of each fable to the surreal, allegorical depiction established.

EXHIBITION PRICELIST 1

The Crab in the Paddock (2012)

23,000

2

The Little Fish and the Penguin (2012)

23,000

3

The Student and Her Flowers (2010)

23,000

4

The Barrel of Good Things (2012)

26,500

5

The Two Pots (2010)

23,000

6

The Leaves in the Wind (2010)

23,000

7

The City Hedgehog and the Country Hedgehog (2008)

23,000

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

RAY CHING b. 1939, lives United Kingdom

Pelorus Jack and the Monkey (2008)

Considered by many to be one of the best wildlife painters of the twentieth century, Raymond Harris Ching’s career as an artist started with his first exhibition ‘Thirty Birds’ in Auckland in 1966. Discovered by publisher and ornithologist Sir William Collins who introduced him to British wildlife painter Sir Peter Scott, Ching soon left for the United Kingdom and in one year produced over 200 individual paintings for the Reader’s Digest Book of British Birds, published in 1969. This has gone on to become the world’s most successful and biggest-selling ornithological book and remains in print today.

Following from this success, Ching continued to paint mostly avian subjects and produced meticulous watercolours that combine a scientist’s exacting detail with an artist’s movement, energy and life.

Ching paints with layer upon layer of almost transparent paint, moving from watercolours to oils in the early 1980s. Working from life observations as well as stuffed birds (he is believed to have a collection of over 7000) (1); each feather, beak and talon is exquisitely rendered on gessoed masonite or canvas.

Ching’s more recent works take these photorealist depictions of birds and other creatures and place them in a setting that defies the very realism for which he is known. Incorporating text, both printed and handwritten, printed comic strips, floating human figures, these paintings contain a multiplicity of stories that require patience and close attention to decode.

He has also revisited Aesop’s fables, creating New Zealand versions of the morality stories. Images of a monkey riding a dolphin (‘Pelorus Jack & the Monkey’) or hedgehogs sharing pizza (The City Hedgehog and the Country Hedgehog’) are fabulous in the original sense of the word - ‘fable-like’ - and the combination of these real creatures in unreal settings creates a sense of tension and unease in the works. These are fables for adults, not bedtime stories for children.

Born 1939 in Wellington, Ray Ching has spent much of his life in the United Kingdom where, still working, he is mostly based today. His paintings are held in numerous private and public collections, such as the National Museum of Wildlife Art in the USA, and portraits from his exhibition ‘A True Story' are held in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

1. Norman, Geraldine ‘Art Market / Portraits of a Modern Landseer’. The Independent, Sunday 11 July 1993

Ray Ching 2012 CV P a g e |1

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

RAY CHING b. 1939, lives United Kingdom SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2013 2012 2010 2008 2007 2005 2004 2002 2000 1998

1997 1996 1994

1993 1989 1988 1986 1982 1980 1977 1976 1967 1966

Aesop's Kiwi Fables, Milford Galleries Dunedin Aesop's Kiwi Fables (Part 2), Artis Gallery, Auckland Aesop's Kiwi Fables (Part 1), Artis Gallery, Auckland Autobiography, Artis Gallery, Auckland Ark, Artis Gallery, Auckland Constellation, The Tryon Gallery, London The Last Tree Fell, Artis Gallery, Auckland, Ray Ching: Bird Paintings, Pacific Galleries, LaFayette, California Ray Ching: Measured Drawings, Tinakori Gallery, Wellington; John Leech Gallery, Auckland Ray Ching: Paintings, (A True Story), Tinakori Gallery, Wellington; Jonathan Grant Galleries, Auckland Ray Ching: A True Story, Tryon & Swann Gallery, London Ray Ching: A True Story, Rye Gallery, England Ray Ching: Puzzles & Fragments, 10 Paintings, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa Beds, 8 Paintings by Ray Ching, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa Wildfowl & Gamebirds, Tryon & Swann Gallery, London Ray Harris Ching, Recent Paintings, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa Voice from the Wilderness, paintings and drawings, The Tryon Gallery, London The SAPPI Commission, paintings and drawings, The Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa Southern African Bird Portraits, The SAPPI Collection, Central City Gallery, London, England Recent Paintings & Drawings, The Tryon Gallery, London Paintings & Drawings, Charlotte H. Gallery, Auckland Drawings of New Zealand Birds, Charlotte H. Gallery, Auckland Wild Portraits, Rye Art Gallery, England; The Tryon & Moorland Galleries, London; The Australian Galleries / The Tryon Gallery, Melbourne, Australia The Gilded Triptych & Recent Wildlife Paintings, The Tryon & Moorland Galleries, London Ray Ching: Paintings & Drawings, International Art Centre, Auckland Bird Paintings & Sketches, Tryon & Moorland Galleries, London Paintings, International Art Centre, Auckland Ray Ching: Recent Paintings & Drawings, Rye Gallery, England; International Art Centre, Auckland Drawings, The Falcon Gallery, Auckland Studies of New Zealand Wildlife, John Leech Gallery, Auckland Thirty Birds, John Leech Gallery, Auckland

GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2012

2009 2007 2006 2004 2003 2000 1998 1997

Significant Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin The Royal Queenstown Easter Show, milford galleries queenstown The Surreal, Milford Galleries Dunedin On the Nature of Things, Artis Gallery, Auckland Ark, Artis Gallery, Auckland Auckland Art Fair Summer Exhibition, Artis Gallery, Auckland Paintings, Artis Gallery, Auckland Birds in Art 2004, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA 2005 Wildlife Art for a New Century II, National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, USA Birds in Art 2003, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA Wildlife Art for a New Century, National Museum of Wildlife, Art Wyoming, USA Birds in Art Exhibition, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA Master Artist at Birds in Art, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA Wildlife & Conservation, Halcyon Gallery, Birmingham, England

Ray Ching 2012 CV P a g e |2

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

1996

Parrots, Tryon & Swann Gallery, London Miniatures, Holland & Holland Gallery, London Animal Paintings, Brighton Art Galleries & Museum, Sussex, UK Wildlife & Conservation, Halcyon Gallery, Birmingham, England Natural History Paintings & Sculpture, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa Painswick House, Gloucestershire, England Animal Paintings, Brighton Art Galleries & Museum, Sussex, UK Twenty Years in Cork Street, The Tryon Gallery, London Museum Awards, King Gallery, New York, USA From Dusk to Dawn, The Tryon & Moorland Gallery, London Wildlife in Art, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA Birds in Art Exhibition, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA Everard Read / Stremmel Gallery, USA Nature in Art, Society of Wildlife Art for the Nations, England Birds in Art Exhibition, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA Wildlife Art Society of Australasia, Melbourne, Australia Wildlife Artists of the World, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa Collector’s Covey, Dallas, USA Bird Artists of the World, Everard Read Gallery / The Tryon Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa Birds in Art Exhibition, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA Birds in Art Exhibition, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA Society of Animal Artists’ Exhibition, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, USA Tryon & Moorland Artists’ Major Wildlife Exhibition, Tryon Gallery, London Birds in Art Exhibition, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA Society of Animal Artist’s Exhibition, Sportsman’s Edge / Explorer’s Club, New York, USA Birds in Art Exhibition, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA Jubilee Exhibition, The Tryon & Moorland Galleries, London Animal Art, Pieter Wenning Gallery / Tryon Gallery, South Africa Endangered Species, The Tryon Gallery, London Bird Books and Bird Art, The Moorland Gallery, London Bird Artists of the World, The Tryon Gallery, London

1995

1994 1992 1990 1987 1986

1985

1984 1983 1982 1981

1980 1979 1977 1976 1975 1974 1972

SELECTED COLLECTIONS Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA; National Museum of Wildlife Art, USA; Solitaire Lodge, Rotorua, New Zealand; Estate of Daniel M. Galbreath; The Amin Shah Gallery

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1994 1990 1990 1988 1988 1986 1986 1985 1981 1981

Lank, David and Raymond Harris-Ching, Ray Harris-Ching: Voice from the Wilderness, Swan Hill Press, Shrewsbury, England, 1994 Smith, Carol Sinclair. Ray Harris-Ching, Journey of an Artist (Masters of the Wild), Carol Sinclair Smith pub. Briar Patch Press, South Carolina, 1990 Fuller, Errol (ed.). Kiwis, A Monograph of the Apterygidae, SeTo Publishing, Auckland, 1990 Rayfield, Susan. Painting Birds: Techniques of Modern Masters, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1988 Hansard, Peter. Wild Portraits, The Wildlife Art of Ray Harris-Ching, co-pub. SeTo Publishing, Auckland, 1988 co-pub. Airlife Publishing, UK, 1988 Harris-Ching, Raymond. New Zealand Birds, An Artist’s Field-Studies, Reed Methuen, Auckland, 1986 Hammond, Nicholas. Twentieth Century Wildlife Artists, Overlook, New York, 1986 Rayfield, Susan. Wildlife Painting Techniques, Watson-Guptill, New York, 1985 Hansard, Peter. The Art of Raymond Ching, Collins, Auckland,1981 Harris-Ching, Raymond. Studies & Sketches of a Bird Painter, Lansdowne, Melbourne,1981

Ray Ching 2012 CV P a g e |3

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

1978 1969+

Snow, David, A.H Chisholm and M.F. Soper. Raymond Ching, The Bird Paintings, watercolours and Pencil Drawings 1969-1975, Collins, London,1978 Book of British Birds, The Reader’s Digest, London, 1969, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1974 1977, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1992

SELECTED REVIEWS 2008 2007 2005 2005 2005 2004 2004 2000

McNamara, T J, ‘Spanning the Ages of Creation’, The New Zealand Herald, 25 October 2008 Daly Peoples, John, ‘Ray Ching Flies Into Myths’, National Business Review, 5 April 2007 McNamara, T J, ‘Flight, Fall and Death’, The New Zealand Herald, 30 November 2005 Daly Peoples, John, ‘Flying High with Ray Ching’, National Business Review, 2 December 2005 Du Chateau, Carroll, ‘A Remarkable Encounter’, The New Zealand Herald, 3 December 2005 Rees, Darren, ‘Paintings from a Different World’, Birds Illustrated, Winter 2004 Sinclair Smith, Carol, Migration of a Bird Painter, March/April 2004 McNamara, T J, ‘Art: Glazing in the best Old Master technique’, The New Zealand Herald, 20 November 2000

The Crowing Cockerel the Fox and the Wallaby (2007)

Ray Ching 2012 CV P a g e |4

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz