N.Z.’s richest art award on tour

Press, 6 September 1989, Page 26

N.Z.’s richest art award on tour

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Works by those judged to be the best young New Zealand artists of the present day make up the “Constructed Intimacies” exhibition now showing at the McDougall Gallery. They were selected from those submitted for the new Moet and Chandon Art Award, which was won by the Christchurchborn abstract painter Stephen Bambury. Trish Clark, a former Auckland gallery owner who has been appointed consultant to the Moet and Chandon Art Foundation, says the exhibition is intended to show what is going on in New Zealand art right now. “Even keen art collectors have been surprised by it,” she says. “This is by far the richest art award in New Zealand. It is also more important, because it’s geared to a broader range of activity of the whole art community, rather than a very narrow sphere, and to long-term support rather than just giving someone some money. It’s opening up dialogue and making connections.

“The sponsors’ impulse is to support the younger

ones so that, 20 years on, the established artists will be seen to have received support.” The touring exhibition is made up of works by 21 of the applicants. “Touring the exhibition to public galleries exposes a lot of artists who might not otherwise be exposed for years to come,” says Trish Clark. It also benefits the galleries in presenting a truly contemporary show of the moment.”

Wystan Curnow says in his foreword to the catalogue that the show holds together because the age group it represents “sustains several distinct but peculiarly inter-connected communities of thought.” Application for the fellowship was by invitation only. The 105 artists, most of them from Auckland and Wellington, were asked to submit two works for evaluation, as well as slides and written statements. Three artists were then asked to send in additional examples of their work, before the final choice was made.

Artists vying for the fellowship had to be between the ages of 25 and 40. “The programme is very much aimed at supporting the younger community of artists, rather than the established artiste,” says Trish Clark. “It is not to support the very young either, but those who have been practising for five or 10 years and have put in some hard slog.” Stephen Bambury was the unanimous choice of the selection panel. His experience was considered to equip him well for the demands of establishing a working studio in a foreign country. An abstract artist, he has twice been awarded Queen Elizabeth II Arte Council grants to travel to North America. In 1987 he was artist-in-residence at Victoria College, Melbourne. He had a one-man show in that city, and another in Sydney in February this year. His fellowship comprises a $25,000 cash grant, and a nine-months

residency in the village of Ay, in the champagne district of France. Moet and

Chandon, who own a large part of the village, are providing a family home there with studio attached. Because Stephen Bambury uses wood and metal in his work, tools and equipment will be provided.

. “The house is not a little garret,” says Trish Clark. She adds that there is no real advantage to an artist in starving in a garret. “Most of those who starve in garrets commit suicide, or die of consumption.” The selection panel of five included two from Christchurch — the painter Gordon Walters, and the painter and art critic John Hurrell. The others were Mary Barr, a freelance curator and researcher; Wystan Curnow, also a freeland curator and art critic; and Helen Atareti Lloyd, a painter. Moet and Chandon also plan to establish art foundations in Canada, Spain and Italy, and this will further increase the possibilities for dialogue among artiste.

GARRY ARTHUR