Lavish display of Kinder’s arts

Press, 27 July 1985, Page 20

Lavish display of Kinder’s arts

John Kinder: Paintings and Photographs. By Michael Dunn, Se To Publishing, Auckland, 1985. 209 pp. 185 illustrations. Index. $295 (limited edition of 750 copies). (Reviewed by lan Lochhead) In 1958 as part of its series of pioneering exhibitions of New Zealand painting, the Auckland City Art Gallery mounted an exhibition of the Rev. John Kinder’s watercolours. The catalogue which accompanied this exhibition included a brief introduction to Kinder’s life and works by Hamish Keith, and made the first tentative steps towards a critical evaluation of his art. By 1969 Kinder was regarded as a sufficently important painter to have a chapter devoted to his work in Brown and Keith’s “New Zealand Painting.” There he was seen as an artist whose works prefigured the preoccupations of painters of the 1930 s in his concern for revealing “the bones, the sheer form, of hills, trees, stones and scrub.” Kinder’s links with contemporary British painting were largely ignored in order to emphasise his importance as a “New Zealand” artist. Gordon Brown’s catalogue of the Ferrier-Watson collection of Kinder watercolours, published in 1970, further expanded our knowledge of the artist’s work though a careful study of the problems of dating and by focusing attention on the role played by photography in the development of his vision of the New Zealand landscape. These earlier studies have now been superseded by Michael Dunn’s monograph which provides a meticulously researched survey of Kinder’s life and career, followed by a comprehensive catalogue of his paintings and photographs. Placed alongside the modest 1958 exhibition catalogue, Dunn’s lavishly produced book clearly indicates how the study of the history of New Zealand art has progressed in those 27 years. “John Kinder: Paintings and Photographs” first claims attention as a piece of handsome book production. Designed, printed and bound in New Zealand, the book sets a high standard which other local publishers can well strive to emulate. Especially impressive are the colour plates, many of which are only slightly reduced from the originals. They convey the delicacy and freshness of Kinder’s watercolours with remarkable fidelity. Even more remarkable is the decision to reproduce Kinder’s photographs using full colour. The results come very close to the rich tonal range of the originals and are amongst the finest reproductions of nineteenth-century photographs I have seen. The 185 plates are integrated with the text and catalogue and are well related to the appropriate sections of the book. Throughout the catalogue, for example, care has been taken to

ensure that the reproduction of a work and the related catalogue entry usually occur on either the same or opposing pages. When such close attention has been paid to details of this kind it is unfortunate to find that the catalogue follows immediately after the text without any clear visual distinction being established between the two principal sections of the book. Similarly, the main division within the catalogue, between the section devoted to paintings and that listing the photographs, is not clearly stated. These are, however, comparatively minor concerns which do not detract from the excellence of the whole. Splendid book production is, nonetheless, of little account if the content does not reach its standard. Michael Dunn’s account of Kinder’s life and art is by far the most thorough and detailed to have appeared and it is unlikely that much of significance will be added to the facts contained here. The first chapter chronicles Kinder’s life in England; his years at Cambridge and association with the Ecclesiological Society, his artistic education, and the period as school master at Uttoxeter, leading up to his decision to emigrate to New Zealand. New light is thrown on these years as a result of Dunn’s archival research in England and this helps to explain why, in 1855 at the age of 35, Kinder applied for the job of Master at the Church of England Grammar School in Auckland, then being established by Bishop Selwyn. Chapter two deals with Kinder’s years in New Zealand and is based not only dn his own autobiographical sketch, the principal biographical source for earlier studies, but on the correspondence of Kinder’s wife Celia and on other' contemporary sources. The result is a much more complete picture of these years and one that adds a valuable new dimension to the image which Kinder presented of himself. Yet, in spite of all the new material that has been discovered, Kinder the man remains elusive. The chapters dealing with Kinder’s life serve as an introduction to the sections devoted to his painting and photography. Dunn avoids easy generalisations about Kinder’s paintings and concentrates on placing them within the context of the nineteenth-century English watercolour tradition. He explains the connections between Kinder and Aaron Penley, the Victorian painter whose manuals on the art of watercolour were immensely popular. Penley’s instruction and example seems to have played a formative role in the evolution of Kinder’s style. It is therefore regrettable that no example of Penley’s work is reproduced. By the early 1860 s Kinder had evolved his mature New Zealand style,

characterised by a strong sense of design, a palate of warm colours and a detached and highly selective vision of the local landscape. These characteristics, as Dunn argues, have much to do with Kinder’s own preoccupations as an Anglican clergyman and the fact that as an amateur artist he painted not for exhibition and sale, but for his own interest and satisfaction. Kinder’s status as an accomplished amateur watercolourist is now assured, but the greatest revelation of this book is his remarkable achievements as a photographer. Curiously, Kinder did not refer to this activity in his autobiographical sketch, but his photographs will come to be recognised as his most enduring artistic achievement. A series of telling comparisons of photographs and watercolours show how Kinder framed his images with a painter’s eye, but also demonstrate the way in which the camera’s unrelenting gaze was softened and simplified in the corresponding paintings. Most striking of all are the close-up views of geothermal sites in the central North Island, and the photographs taken in the heart of the bush. Here Kinder reveals a direct response to the New Zealand landscape which was far in advance of anything we find in his watercolours. The text concludes with a brief chapter on Kinder’s architectural activities and is mainly concerned with his involvement in the design of St Andrew’s Church, Epsom. This simple timber church, now much enlarged, reveals Kinder’s indebtness to the Ecclesiologically inspired Selwyn Style. Only brief mention can be made here of the 'catalogue of over 800 images which completes the book. Arranged topographically, the catalogue lists all the watercolours and drawings at present, known as well as all the photographs and variant prints. Although not intended as a catalogue raisonne, it contains an immense amount of information of value to the student of Kinder’s art, as well as the collector. In particular, it provides a key to the albums in which many of Kinder’s works were originally bound, and which in recent years have been progressively dismembered. Ironically, one of the side effects of Michael Dunn’s researches will almost certainly be the further break up of the original collections he had documented, as a result of a greater awareness of Kinder’s art and the pressures of the art market. The book is, in sum, a fine achievement, and one of which both author and publisher can feel justifiably proud. It is a book which would no doubt have surprised the Rev. John Kinder, M.A., D.D., but one suspects that he too, would also feel a certain sense of pride.