N.Z. Masters on tour

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 19

N.Z. Masters on tour

“United, New Zealand Modern Masters Collection” at the C.S.A. Gallery until July 8. Reviewed by Pat Unger. The United Building Society is touring 14 paintings chosen from a collection of 28 works by “substantial” artists. Underscoring patronage of the arts, it allows "the wonderful vitality of our contemporary arts” to be seen far and wide.

The quality of a corporate collection relies to a great extent on the quality of its consultants. United’s consultants, and therefore the exhibition, are good — it is a real state-of-the-art show.

With only a few distracting questions, it is an impressive line-up of work by contemporary New Zealand artists.

But why are they called “emerging,” "mid-career” and “mature?” It suggests labels for simplified administrative coding. When does the magic moment come for change in gestation of this genus? K the

artist who does not fit a category less of an artist? In “Cascade,” Gretchen Albrecht continues to break down semi-circular forms into arched spaces, with colours that are tonal, temperate and true and perspectives as enjoyably uncertain as in Manet’s “Le Dejeuner sur I’Herbe.”

“A Man and His Wife,” by Denys Watkins, are two graven images pillared by a dubious South Pacific idyll. He, a dispirited craftsperson, and she, a puritan-faced homemaker, are emotion-ally-fudged characters captured by a silk-screen-style lack of animation.

In contrast Neil Fraser’s baroque paint surfaces turn his “White Day” into a living William Turner experience and Joanna Braithwaite’s artistry shows in her handcrafted Rembrandt-like brushwork and dark colour in “Garuda Bird I.”

Philippa Blair’s "Look for the Light” is a drawing that captures complex

architectural space — both illusory and real — with contemporary feeling for intensity in fragmentation.

Conversely Don Peebles treats his large, leafed canvas, “Untitled (Red and Blue)” in an almost offhand way as he if does not want to be seen exploiting its potentially seductive beauty. And there is plenty more to impress and entertain.

Matisse said that art should be like a comfortable armchair; a German idiom states "life is serious, art is carefree.” This appears to be reflected in United’s collection and current marketplace preference. There is an emphasis on likeminded works that are witty, bizarre, brainy and art-derived. Emotions associated with mortality, greatness, the fearful and the compassionate are noticeably absent. Perhaps they are fashions from the past — or for the future.