Damage upsets artist

Press, 12 August 1985, Page 1

Damage upsets artist

Rough handling by Lyttelton port officials has damaged beyond repair some paintings by a Christchurch artist, Mr Alan Pearson. Last week, Harbour Board employees unloaded a container of Mr Pearson’s paintings and while doing so “chipped, squashed, and scraped” many of the 28 medium to big-sized oil works, said Mr Pearson.

Another work, an oil on paper which was packed in a cardboard roll, had been pulled out and ripped in half.

Mr Pearson said the works could not be repaired. “You can’t go back two or three years later (to add more paint) — it’s not like painting the walls.” Mr Pearson arrived back in New Zealand in June after spending the last five years in Britain. Before leaving he arranged for the shipment of his paintings — works he had taken over from New Zealand and works he had painted while in England. He paid to have his own

private container and packed the paintings himself to make sure they were not damaged en route. The total cost was about $7OOO.

The paintings had been in an old van in the container. They were packed vertically with protective cardboard corners, plastic over the painted side, and foam rubber between each work, said Mr Pearson. Two mattresses had ensured the paintings were packed firmly. The oil on paper works had been placed in cardboard rolls on top of the mattresses, he said.

Mr Pearson said he had expected the container to arrive on July 24. It had been late and because of the break-down of the Lyttelton crane, the container had been unloaded at Dunedin and freighted to Christchurch.

Before the works arrived, Mr Pearson asked both the Lyttelton Harbour Board and the Customs Department to tell him when the crate got to port so that he

coiild be on hand to supervise the unloading of its contents. Mr Pearson said he had been told that the container arrived on August 4 but it would not be emptied until August 7. When he arrived at the port on August 7, he found the paintings had been unloaded and placed face down on wooden pallets.

“The agricultural people (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries) probably said it (the van) needed cleaning because it looked dirty.”

The Harbour Board could not clean the van when it was full “so they emptied it without my being there”. Stacking the paintings face down rather than vertically meant that the oil surface had been squashed, said Mr Pearson. The works had been done using the “impasto” technique in which the surface is raised by varying the thickness of the paint. “The oil paint was flattened and chipped. Some of the corners had been

knocked off.” Small holes, like nail holes, were also in some works, he said. Mr Pearson said the works were not insured because he could not afford to do so after paying the cost of shipping them to New Zealand. “I just don’t know what to do — I have stood in front of some of those paintings for three months. “I have paid all that money. I got a private container so that they could not unload it as general cargo.” Mr Pearson said the damage lessened the quality of the paintings. “It kills the spirit and takes away the aesthetism.” Mr Pearson said that nobody had taken the blame for the damage. The Customs Department and the Ministry of Agriculture had blamed the wharf handling, he said. The paintings are scheduled to be shown in public galleries in Auckland, New Plymouth, and Dunedin.