Exhibitions
Wellington
NEIL ROWE
RECENT ACQUISITIONS AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY.
GARY GRIFFITHS Paintings
ROBIN McPHERSON Drawings
Recent Acquisitions by the National Art Gallery are, as was to be expected, a mixed bag. If the National Gallery has ever had a coherent buying policy it has never been readily discernible. Long notorious for its lack of a representative New Zealand collection, there has been some effort by the Gallery of late to rectify this situation, albeit with some odd emphases and some pieces stunning in their mediocrity.
Conspicuous in this exhibition is the recent apotheosis of pottery and weaving from humble crafts to objets d'art. While there is certainly a good argument for the inclusion of Jim Greig's Landform Bowls and Judy Patience's The Cloak in the national collection many of these pieces recently acquired serve a purely decorative function and are in danger of being defined, in years to come, as 1970s kitsch.
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PHILIP TRUSTTRUM Woman, 1965 oil & PVA (collection of the National Gallery, Wellington) |
Although much has been done recently to ensure that most of the country's established painters are at least represented in the national collection, the quality of the work acquired is, sadly, often indifferent. Exceptions this year are Philip Trusttum's splendid Woman 1965, Ralph Hotere's Song Cycle II 1975 and the late Carl Sydow's two Letrafilm and Letratone pieces.
The purchase of seven Frances Hodgkins and three Colin McCahons in 1976 has done something to improve the collection's' holdings of these two painters: although in the case of McCahon, certainly, they have yet to acquire anything resembling a major work. Early New Zealand holdings have been augmented by the purchase of two George O'Briens and an Owen Merton. International artists represented include Andre Lhote's Paysage Mirmande, a Wyndham Lewis drawing, Miss Marie Ney, a fine Dürer woodcut, and four small Turners: two water colours, a drawing and an etching.
Sculpture continues to be the poor relation in this collection. Size, it seems, is the sole criterion for selection, and while it must be conceded that large works present problems this can be no excuse for the National Gallery's utterly unimaginative approach in this area. When, for example, are works by our major sculptors going to find their way on to the lawns outside the building?
Overseas visitors to the National Gallery can be excused for believing that the visual arts in this country are in a sorry state. The day is long overdue for the pursuance of a vigorous and informed buying policy to ensure that the national collection is indeed representative of the best work produced by New Zealanders.
Four drawings scarcely make an exhibition. With Robin McPherson, however, four small works represent a year's painstaking work, and confirm the direction in which she has been moving.
Robin McPherson uses her pen-and-coloured-inks to probe beneath the surface of New Zealand life, exposing a frightening loneliness and violence. Overt though the social comment is, it is I given a razor-sharp edge by her acute observation of people which lifts it above mere commentary.
Loneliness is the theme. A young man slumps in a chair surrounded by white space. A small boy, shirt securely tucked into shorts, takes his first intrepid step on an allegorical staircase which disappears into nothingness. A woman stares blankly across the yawning gulf which separates her from the baby sitting on the floor. The analogy drawn between her beige-trousered bulk and the enigmatically bulging rubbish bags I behind her is disturbing in its cynicism.
The tour de force in this small group of small works is a drawing of a formica bathroom with wraparound mirrors. The mirrors on the two invisible walls are reflected in those on the walls we see creating an infinity of mirrors and a beautifully-handled visual conundrum.
The strongly original surrealist quality in her work stems from an isolation of ordinary events which she invests with an obsessive nightmare quality by the very intensity of her scrutiny and meticulous drawing.
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GARY GRIFFITHS Playtime 1976 oil, 122 x 122 cm. (collection of the Department of Foreign Affairs) |
There is a change of direction and a refinement of technique apparent in the acrylic on canvas paintings Gary Griffiths has hung in his exhibition in the same gallery. Although colour orchestration is still his major concern there is a greater preoccupation with perceptual dynamics and a development from Gene Davis - inspired stripes towards the grid in the two most recent paintings shown here, Playtime and New Morning.
Unlike other local painters in this genre who depend upon simple colour combinations for effect, Griffiths uses complex colour arrangements, exploring at once the sensuous qualities of colour and the fascinating proliferation of pattern made possible by its careful control - colour within a rigid mathematical framework.
Musical analogies abound in his work. The subtle manipulation of tonal value and interval create a visual rhythm. Indeed Griffiths acknowledges the importance of music as a referential point in his work by naming two of the works shown here Sunny Mozambique and New Morning after Bob Dylan songs.
Unconcerned by the modishness of grid painting he is following a logical progression in his work and is excitedly discovering the psychological and Gestalt implications of formal pattern long understood in much Eastern art. This is the most mature work Gary Griffiths has shown to date. Forthe first time in his work, execution and technique have matched the sophistication of his concepts, and he is producing formal abstract painting of a high calibre.
Originally published in Art New Zealand 4 Febraury/March 1977