New Zealand's ·. · Women Painters New Zealand's Women Painters
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NEW ZEALAND'S ·. · WOMEN PAINTERS NEW ZEALAND'S WOMEN PAINTERS cover illustration: May Smith Characterization in Colour 1941 . 31 2 PREFACE The Auckland City Council through the Auckland City Art Gallery has assembled this exhibition as its contribution to the United Nations' International Women's Year 1975. It is indeed significant that New Zealand has produced throughout its history such a high proportion of talented women painters and it is with pride that we take this occasion to present aspects of their considerable accomplishment. The exhibition is mainly drawn from the Gallery's Permanent Collection. To the owners of works generously contributed on loan, we wish to state our sincere gratitude. The exhibition New Zealand 's Women Painters is under the dual direction of Miss Anne Kirker (Curator of Prints & Drawings), and Mr Eric Young (Registrar). Ernest Smith, Director, Auckland City Art Gallery, June 1975 3 INTRODUCTION Frances Hodgkins takes her place at the head of the catalogue, not on ly because she was the earliest important woman artist in New Zealand, but also because her influence, both direct and indirect, has been of such overwhelming importance to the later art ists ; Stoddart and Richmond were early colleagues; Collier was her pupil; Sm ith met her and the work of both Smith and Hope was greatly inf luenced by her work. Her work has a deeper significance, however, than merely its effect upon her fe llow lady artists. It would be inconceivable to assess New Zealand painting in general without considering Frances Hodgkins and this thought leads us into considering the position of women in New Zealand painting. The first and most obvious fact that springs to mind is that the women are not periphery to New Zealand painting, but are in the ma in stream ; not only Hodgkins but Rita Angus, Gretchen Albrecht, Margaret Stoddart, Louise Henderson, Doris Lusk, Robin White, to name but a few, are part of the fabric of art history in New Zealand. These are not Sunday painters, dabbling in art in the midst of domestic duties, but professionals, professionally trained and devoting their life to their art. Yet they are not the ardent spinsters, beloved of the myth-maker; many married, many have children. The second observation arises out of the first: that the art of the women painters in no way differentiates from the art of the men. There is no characteristic common to their painting which states or implies that the creator was a woman, not a man. Th is exhibition is devoted to Women Pa inters of New Zealand, but the on ly th ing these works have in common, apart from being part of the New Zealand painting tradition, is that in each case the artist was a woman. Femininity is not involved any more than masculinity is involved in the work of men painters. Art transcends sex. The third observation follows naturally: that the quality of the works is high and quality has been our only criterion in chosing artists and works for inclusion in the exhibition. We make no claim to providing a survey of all women artists in New Zealand, nor do we claim that each artist is represented by her best and most important work, though we have tried to select characteristic work in each case. This, then, is not a history of New Zealand women painters, but a tribute to Woman, a tribute paid in kind by the offering of some of her best achievements. Anne Kirker Eric Young Auckland City art Gallery 4 CATALOGUE London 1935; Isle of Purbeck Arts Club exhibition 1948; Frances Hodgkins and Her Circle, no. 158 Sizes are given in millimetres, height before width. (reproduced pi 8); Frances Hodgkins paintings The following abbreviations have been used in the catalogue entries and drawings, no. 26 (reproduced pi 11 ); New ACAG: Auckland City Art Gallery Zealand Women Painters, Auckland Society of ACC: Auckland City Council (LL) lower leN Arts 1968, no. 27. Reproduced ACAG Quarterly 9 (LR) lower right (1959) 3. (U L) upper left Pu rchased ACC 1953 (with the Winstone Bequest). ace. no. 1954/9/9 5 The Elevator c1940 gouache 495 x 654 mm . FRANCES HODGKINS Sig ned : Frances Hodgkins (LR}. Exhibited : Lefevre Galleries. London 1940; Retrospective Born Dunedin 1869. Studied under G.P. Nerl i in 1893 Exhibition, London 1946;1sle of Purbeck Arts Club and from 1895-1896 at the Dunedin School of Art. Left exhibition 1948; Frances Hodgkins and Her for Europe 1901. Apart from visits to New Zealand Circle, no. 167; Frances Hodgkins paintings and 1903-1906 and 1912-1913, she lived and worked in drawings, no. 32 (reproduced, cover illus.) England and Europe. Exhibited for the first time at Reproduced: McCormick, Works of Frances Dunedin and Christchurch in 1890. First one-man show Hodgkins in New Zealand, pi IV. held in London. 1907. She settled in Paris the following Purchased ACC 1954 (with the Winstone year, teach ing first at Colarossi's Academy and at her Bequest), acc.no. 1954/9/1 own school 1910-1912. The war years were spent at St lves. Afterwards she divided her time between France 6 Self Portrait: Still Life 1941 oil on board 762 x 635 and Burford, Manchester, and London. From the 1930's mm . Signed: Frances Hodgkins (LR). Exhibited: to her death in 1947, she lived mainly in Dorset. Frances Hodgkins Centenary Exhibition 1969, Beginning at the end of the 1920's, the painter gained no.93 (reproduced}. Reproduced : ACAG increasing recognition in Eng land, as an artist of Quarterly 28 (1 963) 4; Docking, Two Hundred considerable stature. Her work has been exhibited and Years of New Zealand Painting, pi 65. collected widely in England and New Zealand. Purchased ACC 1963 (with the PD. Hodgkins Bequest}, acc.no. 1963/11 /2. George c 1896 watercolour 425 x 317 mm. Inscribed: George, F.M .H. (LL}. Reproduced: HERMINA (MINA) ARNDT McCormick, Works of Frances Hodgkins in New Zealand, pi 7. Born near Queenstown 1885. Studied at Wellington Purchased ACC 1972, acc.no. 1972/2 Technical College. In early 1900's left for Europe where she studied in London under George Lambert at 2 Bridesmaids 1930 oil on canvas 736 x 596 mm. the London School of Art. Later lived in Pen zance and Signed : Frances Hodgkins (LL). Exhibited : worked in association with Laura and Harold Knight Pictures by Frances Hodgkins, City of and Stanhope Forbes. About 1906 met the German Manchester Art Gallery 194 7, no. 2; Frances engraver Hermann Struck and went to Berlin to study Hodgkins and Her Circle, ACAG 1954, no. 145; with him. Then studied under Lovis Corinth. an Frances Hodgkins paintings and drawings, im portant member of the modern movement in ACAG 1959, no. 19 (reproduced pi 8) Germany, who influenced much of her later work. At the Reproduced : Arts Year Book 6 (1949) 6; ACAG outbreak of World War I she returned to New Zealand, Quarterly 49 (1971) 10. worked and exhibited in Wellington. then married and Presented ACAG by Mrs Lucy Wertheim 1948, settled in Motueka. Died suddenly in 1926 at age 41 . ace. no. 1948/7/28 She had a wide reperto ire of subject matter, but portraits and figure studies predominate. Her early 3 Flute Players c1 933 pencil 533 x 393 mm. painting was in the dark tonal ranges of van der Veld en Signed: Frances Hodgkins (LR). Exhibited: but her style became lighter in tone and brighter in Lefevre Galleries, London 1933; Frances colour. An im portant body of her work in etching Hodgkins and Her Circle, no. 156; Frances derives from her studies with Struck. Hodgkins paintings and drawings, no . 27 . Reproduced : McCormick, Works of Frances 7 Head of a Man charcoal 374 x 292 mm. Signed Hodgkins in New Zealand , pi 27. Mina Arndt (LR}. ace. no. 1961 /42/5 Presented ACAG by Messrs Angus Wilson and Odo Cross 1939, ace. no. 1939/2 8 Family Group chalk 571 x 444 mm . Signed Mina Arndt (LR) acc.no. 1961 /42/6 4 Phoenician Pottery and Gourds c1933 watercolour 406 x 542 mm . Signed : Frances 9 Old Trees, Faeron's Bush oil on canvas on board Hodgkins (LR}. Exh ibited : Leicester Galleries, 374 x 273 mm . acc.no. 1961 /42/3 5 10 Landscape Motueka oi I on card 254 x 422 mm . and after his death in 1904 took over his still life and Reprodt:Jced : Tomory, Pai nting 1890-1 950 no. 13. sketching classes. Studied in Paris under Richard ace. no. 1961 /42/2 Miller and Prof. Tudor Hart. Went to Australia in 1913, returned to New Zealand for a year in 1924 and then 11 Homewards oil on canvas on board 1080 x 876 spent eight years wandering around Europe and North mm. Signed M. Arn dt (LR) . Reproduced : Brown Africa following the weather and her own inclinations & Keith, Introduction to New Zealand Pa inting and exhibiting at the Royal Academy, the Paris salons p. 73. acc.no. 1961 /42/1 and in Rome. Resettled in Sydney in 1933, where she All the above works were presented to the married, bought a caravan and toured around New Auckland City Art Gallery by Miss May and Mr South Wales searching for new material. She died in John Manoy 1961. 1956. She is best known for her work in watercolour, a difficult GRACE JOEL medium in which she developed a strong individual style, sensitive to pattern, colour and atmosphere. Born Dunedin 1865. Studied there with Nerli and then These qualities-are also evident in this oil from her first under McCubbin at the National Gallery School.