Van Gogh in black singlet

Press, 4 July 1978, Page 18

Van Gogh in black singlet

Nigel Brown, “Van Gogh Paintings and Related Works,ss at the Brooke/ Gifford Gallery until July 7. Reviewer: Michael Thomas.

The suicide of Van Gogh amongst the cornfields of New Zealand is the subject of Nigel Brown’s 29 unusually compelling oil paintings and drawings on display at the Brooke/ Gifford Gallery.

Van Gogh is treated by the artist as a Christ-like figure — a symbol of passion and love in a landscape inhabited by solitary, uncommunicative

peopie. The hills embrace, and the corn writhes, but each person stands unmoved and “lost in a separate self.” The identity of the New Zealanders and his relationship to the landscape is the theme of several pieces which, strongly drawn and figurative, remind one of the early works of McCahon. Unlike McCahon, however, Nigel Brown’s paintings display their “content” rather obviously. Titles such as “The Blood of Van Gogh for Our Earth” express the message of the paintings, and the meaning is conveyed through words rather than by the emotive

force of colour and shape. The works serve to illustrate a theme, and the form of the paintings does not have the abstract power of a work by McCahon. There are several interpretations of Van Gogh’s self portraits in which the paint has a stippled effect and is rough in texture. These heads have an odd strength, but all are rather similar. In the “related works” a New Zealander dressed in a black singlet features in place of Van Gogh, and mysterious symbols such as a man and his dog can be seen in the background, but no clues are given as to the

significance of these haunting images. Nigei Brown was born in Invercargill and gained a bachelor of fine arts degree at the Elam School of Fne Arts, Auckland. He was the recipient of a'■ Queen Elizabeth II Arts - Council grant earlier this year, and held a highly successful one-man show in Auckland in 1977. He lives in Titirangi and has exhibited in several recent group exhibitions in the North Island. The “Van Gogh and Related Works” exhibitions represent Nigel Brown's latest series of paintings, and prices range from $BO- -