New Zealand Art Print News
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Do prints typecast painters by freezing their artwork in time?
Christchurch artist Hamish Allan is well-known for his weatherboard houses and contemporary landscapes and in an article in the Press promoting his latest exhibition of paintings he made some comments about his work that are similar to the sentiments expressed privately to me by many artists over the years. His latest exhibition was described as featuring a variety of paintings that follow "Allan's signature themes of nostalgia and New Zealand icons with some updated twists."
However I noted with interest that Allan is quoted as saying he doesn't want to be "pigeon-holed as a painter of weatherboard houses or bungalows in a landscape setting, so there is an [increasing] awareness of that which makes New Zealand buildings within the local landscape unique, such as their architectural details, and I've introduced vehicles and the like". This highlights a conundrum for artists - art buyers want their work to stay the same (eg Stanley Palmer's prints of Nikau Palms on the West Coast are what we are always being asked for with hardly any enquiries for his other paintings and prints) whereas the artist wants to keep progressing - or to simply change the focus or theme of their painting.
Prints exacerbate this dilemma when an artist finds their lifetime's artistic output represented in the public's eye by reproductions of paintings that they have moved on from both through time passing and in terms of the development of their artistic style. Print buyers keep buying prints of the paintings that they are best known for (eg Bill Hammond's paintings inspired by Buller's Birds of New Zealand) when they may represent just one phase of an artists career. Jane Puckey even had to be dissuaded from shredding her popular prints a few years ago so eager was her desire to not be frozen in time in the public's eye with a certain style of painting!
Is Hamish Allan afraid of being typecast like an actor who plays one role so convincingly they are forever forced to re-hash their performance in similar roles? If he is I hope he succeeds in evolving from his current style and would personally be delighted if his portraits of Captain Cook etc sell as well as his Robin White inspired landscapes. We have never understood why prints of famous New Zealanders (or people connected with New Zealand) are not more widely available. It is only recently that we have started to sell portraits of eminent kiwis like Ed Hillary and Barry Crump - good on you Fane Flaws for seeing that New Zealanders are just as interested in pictures of important historical figures as eg Americans are in hanging pictures of George Washington. Now if only we could find a good re-print of that famous photograph of Michael Joseph Savage that used to hang in sitting rooms across New Zealand....
However I noted with interest that Allan is quoted as saying he doesn't want to be "pigeon-holed as a painter of weatherboard houses or bungalows in a landscape setting, so there is an [increasing] awareness of that which makes New Zealand buildings within the local landscape unique, such as their architectural details, and I've introduced vehicles and the like". This highlights a conundrum for artists - art buyers want their work to stay the same (eg Stanley Palmer's prints of Nikau Palms on the West Coast are what we are always being asked for with hardly any enquiries for his other paintings and prints) whereas the artist wants to keep progressing - or to simply change the focus or theme of their painting.
Prints exacerbate this dilemma when an artist finds their lifetime's artistic output represented in the public's eye by reproductions of paintings that they have moved on from both through time passing and in terms of the development of their artistic style. Print buyers keep buying prints of the paintings that they are best known for (eg Bill Hammond's paintings inspired by Buller's Birds of New Zealand) when they may represent just one phase of an artists career. Jane Puckey even had to be dissuaded from shredding her popular prints a few years ago so eager was her desire to not be frozen in time in the public's eye with a certain style of painting!
Is Hamish Allan afraid of being typecast like an actor who plays one role so convincingly they are forever forced to re-hash their performance in similar roles? If he is I hope he succeeds in evolving from his current style and would personally be delighted if his portraits of Captain Cook etc sell as well as his Robin White inspired landscapes. We have never understood why prints of famous New Zealanders (or people connected with New Zealand) are not more widely available. It is only recently that we have started to sell portraits of eminent kiwis like Ed Hillary and Barry Crump - good on you Fane Flaws for seeing that New Zealanders are just as interested in pictures of important historical figures as eg Americans are in hanging pictures of George Washington. Now if only we could find a good re-print of that famous photograph of Michael Joseph Savage that used to hang in sitting rooms across New Zealand....
Labels: Barry Crump, Bill Hammond, Ed Hillary, Fane Flaws, Hamish Allan, New Zealand, Paintings, Portraits
¶ 2:58 PM 0 Comments
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Dick Frizzell's book inspires new print
A new Dick Frizzell print arrived this morning. It is a collaborative work with Fane Flaws called "Cover Art". It celebrates the fact that well known artist and designer (and good friend of Frizzell) Flaws worked on the design for Dick's new book "Dick Frizzell: The Painter".
We are really looking forward to buying our office copy of "Dick Frizzell: The Painter" as soon as it is released on October 2 2009. From the publisher's blurb it promises to be a great read:
"Dick Frizzell's images populate our world - you find them on t-shirts, on TV ads, in shop windows, on wine bottles, on cushions and t-towels, and in art shows. People appropriate (or borrow) his images in much the same way that he too appropriated many of the images he has painted over the years. He's reached iconic status in NZ - we love him, he's one of our own. As Dick himself says with a surprised chuckle, "I'm just like the Topp Twins now - I can do no wrong, they all love me!"
Dick has a great story: After going to art school he found himself in his 20s married and with a young family to support. He worked in advertising until 1974, when his artistic urges made him leave the ad agency to take up working in the vege markets in the early hours of the day so that he could pursue his art.
His paintings combined the pragmatics of an adman's need for a compelling motif with the visceral pleasures of expressive modernist paintings. His first images of gaudy fish-tin labels and comic strip characters caught everyone's imaginations. Dick's talent, energy and his deadpan humour meant that his art was highly successful.
Dick Frizzell: The Painter contains all of his major paintings, the story of his life in his own thoughtful and highly articulate words, and an essay by Hamish Keith on Dick's work and its place in the New Zealand art world."
We'll post a review as soon as we get our hands on a copy!
We are really looking forward to buying our office copy of "Dick Frizzell: The Painter" as soon as it is released on October 2 2009. From the publisher's blurb it promises to be a great read:
"Dick Frizzell's images populate our world - you find them on t-shirts, on TV ads, in shop windows, on wine bottles, on cushions and t-towels, and in art shows. People appropriate (or borrow) his images in much the same way that he too appropriated many of the images he has painted over the years. He's reached iconic status in NZ - we love him, he's one of our own. As Dick himself says with a surprised chuckle, "I'm just like the Topp Twins now - I can do no wrong, they all love me!"
Dick has a great story: After going to art school he found himself in his 20s married and with a young family to support. He worked in advertising until 1974, when his artistic urges made him leave the ad agency to take up working in the vege markets in the early hours of the day so that he could pursue his art.
His paintings combined the pragmatics of an adman's need for a compelling motif with the visceral pleasures of expressive modernist paintings. His first images of gaudy fish-tin labels and comic strip characters caught everyone's imaginations. Dick's talent, energy and his deadpan humour meant that his art was highly successful.
Dick Frizzell: The Painter contains all of his major paintings, the story of his life in his own thoughtful and highly articulate words, and an essay by Hamish Keith on Dick's work and its place in the New Zealand art world."
We'll post a review as soon as we get our hands on a copy!
Labels: Dick Frizzell, Dick Frizzell book, New Zealand art, Paintings, prints
¶ 11:47 AM 0 Comments
Friday, 14 August 2009
Rita Angus' Painting of Cass - Who is the person standing on the railway station platform?
The question of who was the model for the lone figure standing on the platform of Cass railway station in Rita Angus' famous painting may have been finally answered by a recent letter to the editor published in "Your Weekend" Magazine on August 8 2009 in response to an article on the settlement of Cass that was published the previous week.
"I read with great interest your Heartland column on Cass. The man on the station in the painting by Rita Angus is my late father, Percy Harold Morey. He was District Engineer for Railways from 1924 - 1945, in Dunedin, the West Coast and Canterbury. He travelled the lines inspecting washouts and slips, and frequently stayed at the Railway House at Cass. During the 1940s he build a bach that still stands to the right of the gate as you enter the settlement, and I have wonderful memories of exploring the surrounds while staying there during school holidays - Pamela Gray, Rolleston."
Are there any other candidates that have been put forward over the years?
The question of who was the model for the lone figure standing on the platform of Cass railway station in Rita Angus' famous painting may have been finally answered by a recent letter to the editor published in "Your Weekend" Magazine on August 8 2009 in response to an article on the settlement of Cass that was published the previous week.
"I read with great interest your Heartland column on Cass. The man on the station in the painting by Rita Angus is my late father, Percy Harold Morey. He was District Engineer for Railways from 1924 - 1945, in Dunedin, the West Coast and Canterbury. He travelled the lines inspecting washouts and slips, and frequently stayed at the Railway House at Cass. During the 1940s he build a bach that still stands to the right of the gate as you enter the settlement, and I have wonderful memories of exploring the surrounds while staying there during school holidays - Pamela Gray, Rolleston."
Are there any other candidates that have been put forward over the years?
Labels: Cass, New Zealand art, Paintings, Railway Station, Rita Angus
¶ 1:28 PM 2 Comments
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Seraphine Pick Art Prints
New in stock at www.prints.co.nz this morning are prints from important contemporary New Zealand painter Seraphine Pick. The artist has said about her art, "My imagery is quite weird anyway, but I wanted to convey an uneasiness." According to one reviewer Pick "has haunted the New Zealand art world with a constantly changing stream of emotionally charged paintings for more than a decade." [TVNZ] Her subjects are often faces, figures or domestic objects, alone or in surprising collage, sometimes fragmented as if strained by memory. (We had trouble catergorising them - in the end we have put Seraphine's prints in the surreal prints gallery.)
Pick was born in Kawakawa, Bay of Islands, Northland and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury in 1988. In 1994 she was the recipient of the Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Art Award, and in 1995 she was the Rita Angus Artist in Residence in Wellington. Her art is held in the majority of public art collections in New Zealand including Te Papa Tongarewa: Museum of New Zealand, McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, Chartwell Trust Collection, Auckland and the Fletcher Challenge Collection.
These are the first two prints to be made of Seraphine Pick's artwork - the paintings that have been reproduced are a 1995 work called "High Rise" and a slighter later work called "Room" (see picture above). Both are extremely high quality prints - both editions have been personally checked and approved by the artist before being released for sale this morning. [Artist Photograph Credit: HB Today].
New in stock at www.prints.co.nz this morning are prints from important contemporary New Zealand painter Seraphine Pick. The artist has said about her art, "My imagery is quite weird anyway, but I wanted to convey an uneasiness." According to one reviewer Pick "has haunted the New Zealand art world with a constantly changing stream of emotionally charged paintings for more than a decade." [TVNZ] Her subjects are often faces, figures or domestic objects, alone or in surprising collage, sometimes fragmented as if strained by memory. (We had trouble catergorising them - in the end we have put Seraphine's prints in the surreal prints gallery.)
Pick was born in Kawakawa, Bay of Islands, Northland and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury in 1988. In 1994 she was the recipient of the Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Art Award, and in 1995 she was the Rita Angus Artist in Residence in Wellington. Her art is held in the majority of public art collections in New Zealand including Te Papa Tongarewa: Museum of New Zealand, McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, Chartwell Trust Collection, Auckland and the Fletcher Challenge Collection.
These are the first two prints to be made of Seraphine Pick's artwork - the paintings that have been reproduced are a 1995 work called "High Rise" and a slighter later work called "Room" (see picture above). Both are extremely high quality prints - both editions have been personally checked and approved by the artist before being released for sale this morning. [Artist Photograph Credit: HB Today].
Labels: art prints, contemporary New Zealand art, Paintings, Seraphine Pick
¶ 11:47 AM 2 Comments
Monday, 11 May 2009
Prints of Maori Portraits painted by Goldie, Lindauer - Should they be allowed by New Zealand Galleries?
Faced with the dwindling supply of prints of paintings by Charles Frederick Goldie we were talking in the office today about the problems publishers of prints are having with the publication of Maori portraits that are held in some major New Zealand public galleries.
For a long time paintings of Maori subjects have been reproduced as prints. Goldie himself did a handsigned print of "A Good Joke" in the 1920s (which now sell for around $1000 each on the rare occasion they come up at auction). However during a major Goldie exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery in 1997 some Gallery staff became nervous about the use of Goldie's Maori portraits (on a large calender) after they were questioned about their right to do so by at least one descendant. Since then the idea of seeking permission from descendants of a [Maori] portrait's subject before a painting is reproduced has taken hold at at least two major New Zealand public art galleries. We have heard the term "moral copyright" being used to describe this new idea that if a print is being made of a painting with people in it there is an obligation to trace descendants of the subjects to ask their permission.
Because we stock all Maori portraits available as prints we have descendants of Goldie (and Lindauer) subjects emailing or calling on at least a weekly basis who want to purchase prints of their ancestors that are not currently in print. Print publishers are facing a gallery policy that is inventing a new form of copyright that is not recognised outside of a couple of institutions in New Zealand. We would love to hear views from all sides of the debate about the publication of prints of Maori Portraits - please add your comment to the discussion below.
Faced with the dwindling supply of prints of paintings by Charles Frederick Goldie we were talking in the office today about the problems publishers of prints are having with the publication of Maori portraits that are held in some major New Zealand public galleries.
For a long time paintings of Maori subjects have been reproduced as prints. Goldie himself did a handsigned print of "A Good Joke" in the 1920s (which now sell for around $1000 each on the rare occasion they come up at auction). However during a major Goldie exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery in 1997 some Gallery staff became nervous about the use of Goldie's Maori portraits (on a large calender) after they were questioned about their right to do so by at least one descendant. Since then the idea of seeking permission from descendants of a [Maori] portrait's subject before a painting is reproduced has taken hold at at least two major New Zealand public art galleries. We have heard the term "moral copyright" being used to describe this new idea that if a print is being made of a painting with people in it there is an obligation to trace descendants of the subjects to ask their permission.
Because we stock all Maori portraits available as prints we have descendants of Goldie (and Lindauer) subjects emailing or calling on at least a weekly basis who want to purchase prints of their ancestors that are not currently in print. Print publishers are facing a gallery policy that is inventing a new form of copyright that is not recognised outside of a couple of institutions in New Zealand. We would love to hear views from all sides of the debate about the publication of prints of Maori Portraits - please add your comment to the discussion below.
Labels: Auckland Art Gallery, Charles Goldie, Copyright, Goldie prints, Maori Portraits, Paintings
¶ 2:28 PM 6 Comments
