Painting in the Tropics
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ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following reference: Meyer, Angela Mary (2015) Painting in the tropics. PhD thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/42928/ The author has certified to JCU that they have made a reasonable effort to gain permission and acknowledge the owner of any third party copyright material included in this document. If you believe that this is not the case, please contact [email protected] and quote http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/42928/ Painting in the tropics Thesis submitted by Angela Mary MEYER, BA The University of Sydney, MCA Cairns James Cook University, Grad Cert Tertiary Teaching Cairns James Cook University June 2015 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts, Society and Education James Cook University ii Acknowledgements There are many people I would like to thank for their great help in assisting me with this research project, especially my supervisors Professor Stephen Naylor and Associate Professor Richard Lansdown, for their continued inspiration and encouragement. Thank you also to Dr John Leonard for the many conversations. Thank you to all the James Cook University library staff, Kate Elder, Bronwen Forster and Mark Collins. Thank you for much appreciated advice and technical assistance from Dr Liz Tynan, Dr Stephen Torre, Dr Timothy Bottoms, Peter Boulot, Juy Hepner, Kathy Fowler, Vu Nguyen, Luke Jackson, Claire Swift, Lyn Courtney, Ken Saville, Dr Jaqueline Drinkall, Dr Ryan Daniel, Dr Lisa Law and Research Student Monitors Dr Michael Wood and Dr Janice Wegner. Kind thanks to Shannon Hogan and all at the Graduate Research School. Many kind thanks to the artists who agreed to participate in the study, including Ray Crooke, Ian Smith, Amanda Feher, Claudine Marzik, James Baines, Claire Souter and Laurine Field, and posthumously, Margaret Olley, Helen Wiltshire. Thank you also to Martin Sharp and Natasha Chambers. For the photography, thank you to Michael Marzik, David Campbell and Ken Hossen. For the exhibitions, thank you for the carpentry of Dave Hart, Tamarisque Art Supplies and the very helpful staff at Tanks Art Centre; curator Chris Stannard, Giovanni Furnari and Lisa Monks. Thank you to Ingrid Hoffman; Jake and Mark at Kuranda Carriers, Kade Moir at Create Printing and musician Trish Molloy. Thank you to Ann Vardanega and Wayne Sheppard for helping hang the Lux Exhibitions. Thank you to Tablelands Regional Gallery staff, Mark Both and Anna Gillisan, and musician Giuseppe Vizzone. iii Thank you to my family for their support and patience, Ken, Seraphina, Gloria and Beatrice. Thank you to my Mother, Uncle Michael, Aunty Shelley and my sisters Grace and Violet. I thank my grandmother Winifred Bice, (1910-2010), for her infinite faith. Many thanks to the individuals, museums and galleries who kindly gave their permission for the use of artists’ images in my thesis. Every reasonable effort has been made to gain permission and acknowledge the owners of copyright material. I would be pleased to hear from any copyright owner who has been omitted or incorrectly acknowledged. iv Statement of the Contribution of Others Nature of Assistance Contribution Names, Titles and Affiliations of Co- Contributors Intellectual support Editorial assistance Prof Stephen Naylor Assoc Prof Richard Lansdown Dr John Leonard Dr Liz Tynan Kathy Fowler Data Analysis Prof Stephen Naylor Associate Prof Richard Lansdown Statistical support Ken Saville Proposal writing Prof Stephen Naylor Dr Ryan Daniel Financial support Field research James Cook University contribution to art materials Funding Self-funded Data collection Interview design and Prof Stephen Naylor transcription Angela Meyer Exhibitions Chris Stannard Mark Both Ingrid Hoffman Michael Marzik v Abstract This thesis demonstrates a painted vision of the tropics as a space desirable and strange, redolent of fear and longing, bewilderment and comfort. Three painters from the French tradition provide the foundation of the research: Matisse, who concentrated on the formal element of its physical appearance; Gauguin, who immersed himself in an experiential lived involvement; and Henri Rousseau, who dreamed only of the tropics via his imagination. Local Far North Queensland painters, including Ray Crooke, Margaret Olley, Ian Smith, Helen Wiltshire, James Baines, Claudine Marzik, Laurine Field, Claire Souter and Amanda Feher, demonstrate a continued fascination with the tropics. These painters allow us to revisit the vision of the French painters Matisse, Gauguin and Rousseau. Their experiences display the nuances of the wet tropic landscape by what they see as well as the projection of their inner thoughts. Crooke’s attention focuses on the forms of the vegetation and the peopled world within it, while Olley responds to the mildew and colour. Smith, Wiltshire and Baines best describe the negative impact of urban stresses to tropical nature, in which the tropical habitat is seen as threatened by urban expansion. Marzik and Field bring insight into the sensory components of the tropics through its texture and spiritual dimensions, while Souter and Feher utilise the tropical landscape for its motifs and symbols. As a response to the French painters’ vision of the tropical world and the case study surveys, I have painted suites of work that reflect the tropical experience. The process of reflection considers the objects of the external physical world combined with imagination. My paintings participate in the tropical vision by expressing the characteristics that shape the imagery, and by the personal journey described within them. The paintings image the tropics using devices of portraiture, landscape and mythological narrative, expressed in the lexicon of postmodern painting. vi Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................... III STATEMENT OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF OTHERS ............................. V ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... VI TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................. VII LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................ X LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................ XI LIST OF PLATES ............................................................................................. XII INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1 EUROPEAN VISIONS OF THE TROPICS ......................... 13 1.1 Antipodes, Utopias and Dystopias ............................................................ 13 1.2 Reactions in Explorers and Artists ............................................................... 16 1.3 Dystopian Tropics ........................................................................................ 26 1.4 Empirical Vision of the Tropics ................................................................... 34 1.5 Orientalism ................................................................................................... 38 1.6 Dasein: Space and Place ............................................................................... 49 CHAPTER 2 WESTERN ART AND THE NORTH QUEENSLAND TROPICS 56 2.1 The Colonial era......................................................................................... 56 2.2 Modernism and Post-modernism in the tropics ........................................ 63 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGIES ............................................................... 86 3.1 Research Flow Chart.................................................................................. 87 3.2 Approach .................................................................................................... 87 3.3 Theoretical framework for research design ............................................... 92 3.4 Case study method ..................................................................................... 95 3.5 Selected artists ........................................................................................... 96 vii 3.6 Studio as laboratory ................................................................................... 97 3.7 Summary .................................................................................................... 98 CHAPTER 4 CASE STUDIES ..................................................................... 100 4.1 A case study of painting the tropics in Far North Queensland ............... 100 4.2 Artist biographies ..................................................................................... 104 4.2.1 Background............................................................................................. 104 4.2.2 Profiles ................................................................................................... 104 4.3 Questionnaire results table....................................................................... 119 4.4 Report on findings ................................................................................... 123 4.5 Paradise as a theme in relation to tropical nature .................................... 125 4.6 Inherent qualities of the tropics ............................................................... 129 4.7 Impact of topography and geography .....................................................