Tuesday, October 16, 2012

240 Years of New Zealand Painting – a fascinating insight into the development of New Zealand painting


This landmark book on New Zealand artists and their work was first published in 1971, extended to 1990 by art historian Michael Dunn and now again to 2010 by art historian, writer and lecturer, Edward Hanfling.




240 Years of New Zealand Painting spans 150 artists and more than 170 paintings. Ed Hanfling includes 23 new artist essays, spanning the last 20 years that he feels best represent that period. Most of the artists included in this latest chapter have not featured previously. The exceptions are those who have moved their work in a distinctly new direction during the last 20 years.

Entirely re-designed and with an introduction to the new edition, this is the consummate book all New Zealand art lovers should have on their coffee tables. It is a truly beautiful thing to behold, the most luscious NZ book I have seen this year.

“Above all I have let feeling dictate my judgements...Though this may sound strange or corny, I have tried to come up with a selection that feels good, or conveys a sense of joy. It is an antidote, perhaps, to the gloominess associated with New Zealand art...” Ed Hanfling.

New artist profiles and images selected by Edward Hanfling include:

●Bill Hammond ● Milan Mrkusich ● Jude Rae ● Shane Cotton ● Don Driver ● Mervyn Williams ● Séraphine Pick  ● Sara Hughes  ● John Pule ● Saskia Leek ● Joanna Margaret Paul ● Douglas Badcock ● Alberto Garcia-Alvarez ● Julian Dashper ● Saffronn Te Ratana ● Philip Trusttum ● Peter Robinson ● John Reynolds ● Ian Scott ● Lorraine Webb ● Robyn Kahukiwa ● Patrick Lundberg ● Raewyn Martyn ●

The original text by GIL DOCKING, former director of the Auckland Art Gallery, covers the period from European discovery up to 1969. Presented in its original form, it is a fascinating look at what was being thought about and written about New Zealand paintings over forty years ago.

Beginning with Sydney Parkinson’s 1769 pen-and-wash study A Perforated Rock in New Zealand, made during Cook’s first voyage of discovery, the text moves through four main periods; from ‘Exploration’, a time when British and French painters with varying approaches—from the scientific to the romantic—recorded what they saw during brief visits to this country, to the ‘New Impulses’ in New Zealand art in the 1960s.

MICHAEL DUNN’s narrative takes the reader through the 1970s and 1980s with a discussion of neo-expressionism, new realism and the rise of Māori and Polynesian painting.

EDWARD HANFLING looks at New Zealand painting and its evolution over the last twenty years, when many painters saw their work as a medium for addressing issues, ideas and identities, and describes new directions in painting that test the boundaries of the medium.

EDWARD HANFLING is an art historian, critic and curator, and a lecturer in the School of Media Arts at Wintec, Hamilton. He holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Auckland, and has written for a range of publications including Art New Zealand and the Burlington Magazine. He is editor of the Journal of New Zealand Art History and has published books on New Zealand artists such as Ian Scott and Milan Mrkusich, including the monograph Mrkusich: The Art of Transformation (2009) co-written with Alan Wright. He lives in Onehunga, Auckland with his partner Carolyn and their cat Captain Springs.

GIL DOCKING was born at Bendigo, Victoria in 1919 and educated in Australia. His first association with New Zealanders was during service with an RAAF squadron which affiliated with the RNZAF operating from Norfolk Island under Coastal Command and, later, as a prisoner of war in Germany. Following the war he resumed art studies at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, then studied at the University of Melbourne. After graduating in Arts, he married the artist Shay Lawson. He was director of the Auckland City Art Gallery (now the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki) from 1965 to 1972 and during that time wrote the first edition of this book. He now lives in Sydney.

MICHAEL DUNN was Head of the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland from 1994 to 2003. He completed a diploma majoring in painting at the Canterbury School of Fine Arts before graduating with a BA (Hons) and MA in Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne. In 1970 he was appointed to a lectureship at the University of Auckland then promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1975. While lecturing at the university, he completed a PhD on the art of Gordon Walters. He sat on the board of the Auckland City Art Gallery (now the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki) from 1977 to 1996, and has written many books on individual New Zealand artists and art-related topics, notably New Zealand Painting: A Concise History, first published in 1991, as well as writing specialist articles and papers for journals worldwide

240 Years of New Zealand Painting |  Edward Hanfling, Gil Docking and Michael Dunn  |  David Bateman publishing |  Published October 2012  |  rrp $100

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