Exhibitions tracing artists’ work

Press, 4 January 1978, Page 18

Exhibitions tracing artists’ work

Two exhibitions featuring the work of wellknown Canterbury artists are proving very popular with the crowds vising the McDougal] Art Gallery these holidays. Both exhibitions are retrospective, tracing the development of the artists’ work over many years. The exhibition of 85 paintings by the Christchurch water colourist, Olivia Spencer-Bower, has attracted a great deal of interest. Many galleries throughout the country have asked to show the paintings which were gathered from private and public collections in New Zealand and Australia. Water-colour studies painted when the artist was only nine years old are the earliest works in a collection that spans 83 of Olivia Spencer-Bower’s full and productive 72 years.

Her willingness to experiment and change shows through in the stimulating array of her work. And the evolution of her individualistic style through study, travel, and experience is dramatically evident.

Miss Spencer-Bower’s Punakaiki works, painted from 1934 to 1942, on return from her stimulating European sojourn, show a courageous and innovative approach as she captured the drama of the pounding sea waves in water-colour.

Although she was then Cainting the beach and ush of the West Coast with a methodical and exacting attack, later ballet studies painted in 1938 reveal an interest in figures which might have rivalled her preoccupation with New Zealand landscapes if she had received more encouragement.

Paintings of the Kaikoura landscape two years later show her skilful understanding of the lay of the land, with its rolling hills, looming mountains, clouds, and sea. But the appealing Maori mother and baby studies painted at Rawene’s Maternity Hospital in the late forties, and drawings and designs of Maori children, mark a real achievement in her career in their clarity and free simplicity.

A tour of the Pacific Islands in 1960 provided her with the inspriation to paint peopled landscapes,

and after three years spent in Europe (1963-66) she embarked on a series of “Spinner” paintings which explore the inter-re-lationship of people and the problems of composition. Recent paintings of South Island country — particularly her Lake Ohau water-colours — illustrate the strength and evolving nature of Miss Spencer-Bower’s art as her paintings become increasingly economical and effective.

This exhibition — the first to be held in the gallery since the lighting and air-conditioning improvements — will run until January 22. The other current exhibition is the last annual Group show of paintings, pottery, weaving, and sculpture. The Group is a term applied very loosely to a number of Christchurch artists who originally decided to break away from the established art scene and foster originality and individuality. Many of the top-name New Zealand artists are among those who have exhibited with the Group in its 50 years of existence. They include Colin McCahon, Patrick Hanly, Doris Lusk, M. T. Woollaston, William Sutton, Austen Deans, Leo Bensemann, and Olivia Spencer-Bower. Although the Group Shows were once regarded as the most reliable and comprehensive annual exhibition of New Zealand art, their status diminished in recent years with the opening of dealer galleries and with a more liberal attitude on the part of public and art society galleries. No longer needed in today’s healthier art scene, the Group decided to end on its fiftieth anniversary with a special exhibition to mark its demise.

The paintings are hung according to period, from 1926 to 1977, and include one work from each artist’s early exhibition. Two works have been selected in the case of longestestablished members, enabling stunning comparisons to be drawn between their earlier and most recent works. But most of the items present a retrospective look at Canterbury art.