Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Women: Flight of Time
Curated by Julia Waite
And
Women: Flight of Time
Published by Auckland Art Gallery
Edited by Julia Waite
RRP $65.00
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Women: Flight of Time is a new exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery which highlights the place of women artists in shaping the development of modern art in New Zealand.
Spanning the period from 1920 to 1970, the exhibition features more than 80 paintings, prints, sculptures and textiles from public and private collections showing major works alongside works which have not previously been exhibited, revealing connections between artists and exploring themes and ideas which show the depth of women’s artistic achievements.
Auckland Art Gallery Director Kirsten Lacy says, “The Gallery is committed to ensuring that women artists take their due place in the history of modern art and that the contexts in which they produced are made visible. The women celebrated in Modern Women: Flight of Time are pioneering artists who boldly seized control of their own representation, leaving an indelible mark on New Zealand.”
Included in the exhibition are major work such as Rita Angus’ “Portrait of Betty Curnow” (1942), Frances Hodgkins’ “Self Portrait: Still Life: (1936) and Lois White’s “War Makers of 1937.
There are also artists whose careers have only recently been given more attention such as Colin McCahon’s wife Anne Hamblett and Pauline Yearbury, the first Māori woman to graduate from Elam in 1946.
The exhibition has been an opportunity for the gallery to include international female artists held in New Zealand collections. So, there are works such as “The Marriage at Cana” by the English neo-romantic artist Winifred Knights and works by the Russian modernist, Natalia Goncharova and British sculptor Barbara Hepworth.
Exhibited with the major works of Frances Hodgkins’ there are also some of her exceptional textile designs from the 1920’s. There are several other textile works in the show including the large curtails made for the Auckland Art Gallery in 1958 by Ilse von Randow who had previously woven work in collaborated with Colin McCahon.
Within the exhibition there is a mini exhibition of work by June Black featuring paintings, sculptures and graphic work . She was an early feminist who exhibited nationally and internationally in the 1950s and 1960s Her figurative work reflect her interest in existentialism, surrealism and the theatre of the absurd.
There are some treasures to be found in the show notably a few small works by Flora Scales who has often been mentioned as the artist who provided Toss Woollaston with the impetus to pursue new ideas.
These small works spanning the1930’s through to the 1970’s are works painted in France, the UK and New Zealand. Her “Port of Mousehole at Sunset” is an extraordinary work part post-impressionist work and modern blurred imagery.
The range of work includes an exclusive collaboration with Karen Walker, introducing a collection of three silk scarves featuring artworks from the Gallery’s collection: Adele Younghusband’s Rehearsal (1938), Eileen Mayo’s Turkish Bath (circa 1930) and Teuana Tibbo’s Vase of Flowers (circa 1965).
The artists featured in this exhibition are: Eileen Agar, Rita Angus, Mina Arndt, Tanya Ashken, June Black, Jenny Campbell, Alison Duff, Elizabeth Ellis, Jacqueline Fahey, Ivy Fife, Natalia Goncharova, Anne Hamblett, Rhona Haszard, Barbara Hepworth, Avis Higgs, Frances Hodgkins, Julia Holderness (Florence Weir), Laura Knight, Winifred Knights, Mere Harrison Lodge, Doris Lusk, Molly Macalister, Ngaio Marsh, Kāterina Mataira, Eileen Mayo, Juliet Peter, Margot Philips, Ilse von Randow, Anne Estelle Rice, Kittie Roberts, Flora Scales, Maud Sherwood, May Smith, Olivia Spencer Bower, Helen Stewart, Teuane Tibbo, A Lois White, Pauline Yearbury, Adele Younghusband, and Beth Zanders.
Women: Flight of Time
Published by Auckland Art Gallery
Edited by Julia Waite
RRP $65.00
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated book, Modern Women: Flight of Time, which offers a deeper exploration of the featured artists and profiles additional artists.
The exhibition is divided into three thematic areas – Stage , Mask and Setting but this is not all the apparent when viewing the show. The book however makes these three areas much more obvious.
The works under Stage is of interiors, individual and objects within settings with artists such as Lois White, Eileen Mayo and Tanya Ashken. The Adele Younghusband works focus on both domestic and industrial activities with her “Girl Ironing” as well as “Log Haulers”.
The works under the heading of Mask are mainly of portraits with artists Mina Arndt, Maud Sherwood and May Smith The iconic “Portrait of Betty Curnow by Rita Angus is featured along with the “Double Portrait of Frances Hodgkins.
The paintings in “Settings” are predominantly landscape and include work by Rhona Haszard, Jaqueline Fahey and Ivy Fife. Here there are also the sparse landscapes of Margot Phillips such as her “The Lighthouse”.
In her introduction Julia Waite provides perceptive insights into the ways the female artists worked within their various genres. She explores the various dimensions of these artists lives, their family and domestic connections, their development of skills through art school, teachers and other influences as well as their experiments and experiences both in New Zealand and abroad.,
The book also provides valuable information about the careers of these women artists as in the case of Katerina Mataira who was one of the few women who was part of Gordon Tovey’s innovative art programme in North land which had also included artists such as Ralph Hotere. There are also essays on other lesser-known Māori artists such as Pauline Yearbury and Mere Harrison-Lodge.
With over 100 illustrations and fifty essays on women artists the books not only provides a history of development of the art by women in the middle of the twentieth century but also an insight into the careers and dedication of these artists.
The essays also reveal the problems faced by many women artists whose careers were often interrupted or curtailed by political, social or domestic issues.
The lack of recognition led to many of these women not being included in exhibitions and publications and omitted from the canon of New Zealand art.
The book includes writing from various experts including Jill Trevelyan, Sophie Matthiesson, Linda Tyler, Robyn Notman, Joanne Drayton, Kirsty Baker, Leonard Bell. Felicity Milburn, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Nathan Pōhio.
New Zealand Arts Review 