Tribute to a sculptor

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33611, 13 August 1974, Page 10

Tribute to a sculptor

(Contributed by C.E.S.)

AT the death of John Panting in a motor-cycle accident in London recently, New Zealand lost one of its foremost sculptors. New Zealand produces : inspired, talented and ingenious people in many fields. The life here is good, but often to a degree that flattens any desire to transcend any measure of success that can be gained. In the visual arts here it is easy to have work exhibited, criticism is geni erally gentle and generally I uninformed, names can ‘become known provincially, sometimes nationally; works can be acquired for their I intrinsic worth or increasj ingly for investment; but rewards are meagre. Not enough has been done to nurture and support artists ;as committed professionals. For sculptors, with the economics involved it is ! even more difficult and for an uncompromising sculptor, without relying on flawed architectural commissions, it is virtually impossible. To transcend the norm in any chosen sphere takes a singular type of dedicated drive and a degree of ruthlessness. New Zealand produces few such people—- . many in sport, some tyould have us believe. In the visual arts they are very rare. John Panting was such a ! person. • He possessed great charm and wit. extreme mental agility, and a prodigious capacity for concentrated work — attributes vitally necessary’ to attain and maintain the respected position he held in British sculpture and was extending inter- ‘ nationally. j This uncompromising. single-mindedness takes its i toll on those immediately surrounding the artist, but, once a commitment is made ■ lit is concomitant with the ; harsh realities of life as a I professional artist in the I international art world. i

He was present and a participant in an era when there was a great upheaval of all sculptural notions, the reverberations of which are still continuing. He met and overcame many complex technical problems in creating sculptures which had a consistent unity and sequential thread connecting subsequent groups of work. The economic breathing space his success eventually created, and his personal energy, enabled him to amass a considerable body of work in a relatively short time. He was at the height of his powers, in the midst of his most productive years. New Zealand is a clean, pleasant country, good for bringing up a family, and the allure to return always remains; but for the kind of sculptor and art educator that John Panting had become, a decision to return to live and work in this country would have been a very difficult one. For those who remain, or who choose to return, and those yet to seek what he had found, his achievement will remain an inspiration. John Panting was born in Palmerston North in 1940, and was educated at Palmerston North Boys’ High School and Queen Elizabeth Technical College, where he gained his fine arts preliminary for entrance to art school. Palmerston North students at that time had a tradition of coming to the Canterbury School of Art. He entered the art school in 1959, and at the end of the first year opted to major in sculpture under the tutelage of Tom Taylor and E. J. Doudney. He graduated with honours in 1962. The next year he was awarded an Arts Council bursary for overseas study, and he travelled to England. He worked for a time in Cambridge, gathering enough i work to apply and suc-

cessfully gain entry, along with a handful of others, in the 1964 intake to the sculpture department of the Royal College of Art, under Professor Bernard Meadows. His compatriot, Stephen Furlonger, was already working there with an Englishman, Derrick Woodham, whose work using fibreglass and bright colour was to have an immediate impact. Panting adopted this new medium, and two of his early works were shown in an exhibition which proved to be a springboard to his later success. This was “Towards Art II”— work by then present and former, sculpture students of the R.C.A., organised by the British Arts Council. He became extremely adroit in the use of polyester resins, exploring all their plastic capabilities in his work. His investigations and experience with this material subsequently led in 1972 to the publication of his definitive manual, “Sculpture in Glass-Fibre” (Lund Humphries). He graduated from the R.C.A. in 1967. but returned there regularly to teach as a sculptor and as an expert in the use of polyester resins. He had one-man shows in London and Amsterdam, and participated in many group exhibitions and projects. In 1972 he took part in the Peter Stuyvesant City Sculpture Project and executed a large work in Southampton. An exhibition of his sculpture, multiples, prints and drawings organised by the Manawatu Art Gallerv, toured New Zealand in 1972. In 1969 he was visiting senior lecturer at Auckland University School of Art, and held a one-man show at the Barry Lett. Galleries. At the time of his death he was head of the sculpture department of the Central School of Art, London. He is survived by his wife and two sons.