Art History - week 12/13 - 13/05/2019 + 20/05/2019

Landscape artist

Petrus van der Velden 

Petrus van der Velden, Marken funeral barge, about 1873-74, oil on canvas. Gift of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, 1936.

"Petrus van der Velden was born at Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on 5 May 1837, the fifth child of a working-class Catholic family. His parents were Joannes van der Velden, a warehouse manager, and his wife, Jacoba van Essel. Petrus began drawing lessons at about the age of 13 at the Schilderkundig genootschap, and a year later commenced an apprenticeship in the lithographic trade. In 1858, in partnership with J. G. Zijderman, he established a lithographic printing firm in Rotterdam." 

"Van der Velden brought to Christchurch the attitudes and concerns of one of Europe's most highly regarded artistic centres, and introduced the role of the professional artist. By the end of 1890 he had committed himself to the artistic life of the city. In November at the Canterbury Society of Arts' exhibition he exhibited the now legendary 'Dutch funeral', which is the largest, and perhaps the greatest, of his Marken studies."

"In the Netherlands, Van der Velden had focused on studies of everyday people, establishing his reputation painting village life in the island of Marken, near Amsterdam. But in New Zealand, he quickly found his muse in the dramatic landscape he found here.  It was during the 1890’s that Van der Velden discovered Otira Gorge on the West Coast, which provided him with his most successful and enduring subject, one that contributed to the revolution of New Zealand painting. He had turned his attention to capturing the rugged landscape in raw, expressive paintings.  Here’s a short video from Art Curator Rebecca Rice on Storm at Wellington Heads" (Friendsoftepapa.org.nz, 2013)

do I like it?

I do like the colour pallet he uses and how it created a mood, I also think the way he depicts people is quite different as you don't see their faces at all you just see them as a sort of silhouette . 

is this relevant to my own work?

No

Cedric Savage

Cedric Savage
Almond Trees, Sitges Spain
Oil on canvas
51.5 x 63 cm
Signed lower right: Inscribed Verso: Almond Blossom Trees at Sitges (near Barcelona) Costa Brava, Spain

"Cedric Savage was born in Christchurch in 1901. He studied sculpture and modelling at the Canterbury School of Art for two years before enrolling in life drawing classes under Sydney Lough Thompson and Archibald Nicholl." (Jonathan Grant Gallery, 2019)

"Initially, Savage worked as a designer and modeller on the Parliament Buildings in Wellington and then moved to Sydney to work on St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral and the State Theatre. During the late 1920s and early 1930s Savage traveled through the Pacific islands where he began painting and on his return to New Zealand he was awarded a solo exhibition in Dunedin, 1933. The works that he completed during this period were accepted for Art Society shows in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin." (Jonathan Grant Gallery, 2019)

"In 1945 Savage settled in Nelson, building a house at Motupipi, which became both his base and inspiration for numerous paintings that focus on the surrounding landscape. Savage’s painting reputation developed throughout the 1940s with his works often selling first from the Academy exhibitions. Throughout the 1950s Savage continued to hold solo exhibitions throughout New Zealand with a show at the Bishop Suter Gallery in 1953, while continuing to exhibit with the New Zealand Academy and Canterbury Society of Arts. From 1945-53 he was a council member for the Academy and on the committee of management for the National Art Gallery." (Jonathan Grant Gallery, 2019) 

"Savage subsequently left New Zealand for Europe in 1955 in order to paint free of judgement, traveling and painting in the Baleric Islands, Mallorca, Deya and Sitges. Savage spent the next decade Savage spent his time painting abroad, returning to New Zealand to exhibit and sell the works in order to return back to Europe. During the early 1960s he travelled to Greece painting at Salamis, Crete and Rhodes, Kos, Salamis, Poros and Aegina. In New Zealand his works sold well but critical reaction remained uninterested, however in 1962 Savage was awarded the prestigious Kelliher Art Award." (Jonathan Grant Gallery, 2019)

Do I like their works:

I love their work, I think its very beautiful and vibrant, I also very like the textured feel it has when you look at it.

Is this relevant to my works:

No

References: 

T. L. Rodney Wilson. 'Velden, Petrus van der', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1993. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2v1/velden-petrus-van-der (accessed 20 May 2019)

Friendsoftepapa.org.nz. (2013). Petrus van der Velden - Friends of Te Papa. [online] Available at: https://www.friendsoftepapa.org.nz/features/petrus-van-der-velden/ [Accessed 19 May 2019].

Jonathan Grant Gallery. (2019). Cedric Savage - Jonathan Grant Gallery. [online] Available at: http://jgg.co.nz/artists/cedric-savage/ [Accessed 19 May 2019].

Portrait artist

Jacqueline Fahey 

Jacqueline Fahey, Final domestic expose – I paint myself

"In the early 1980s there was an outpouring of feminist art by New Zealand women painters. As in this work by Jacqueline Fahey, much of women's art explored women's unique experience and was highly self-reflective. Here Fahey plays on the double meaning of 'painting myself' – both with the lipstick in hand at the centre of the work and also through the paint brush." (Phillips 2014)

"Margaret Stoddard, Elizabeth Kelly, Juliet Peter, Doirs Luck. In all those women, they had a real influence on me" (Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, 2017)

"It wasn't so much that they influenced the way I painted what they did was allowed me to be professional to think of it as my life, to pace myself to construct my life around my work and force my life I did lead to be part of my work" (Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, 2017)

"Educated at the exclusive Teschemakers Catholic boarding school, Jacqueline Fahey began studying art at sixteen, at the Canterbury College School of Art, Christchurch, New Zealand, where she was taught by illustrator Russell Clark. She is now the only survivor of a group of renowned Canterbury women artists that included Rita Angus and Evelyn Page." (The Arts Foundation, 2019)

" painter in the late 1950s but had three children in quick succession and soon found that a young family and the demands of her husband's career, put a temporary halt to her painting career.  However, by the late 1960s she was able to take up painting again and has set a vigorous pace since." (The Arts Foundation, 2019)

"Jacqueline Fahey was one of the first New Zealand women artists to paint from a woman's perspective. "(The Arts Foundation, 2019)

"Jacqueline Fahey is also a writer publishing the novel Cutting Loose (David Ling, 1998) about the 1987 coup in Fiji, best-selling memoir Something for the Birds (AUP, 2006) and Before I Forget (AUP, 2012).  She has also completed she has just finished her second novel The Fenians Assassin." (The Arts Foundation, 2019)

Do I like their works:

Yes I like their works alot and how a lot of their works are cluttered and, show the person and not just a portrait but they tell a story about the person using symbols in the foreground of the painting and around the portrait. 

  

Is this relevant to my own works:

Yes, because no only is this work shown is a self portrait but it also shows a different way to communicate within a self portrait   

Philip Clairmont

The scarred couch, the Auckland experience, 1978, by Philip Clairmont.

"Clairmont was born in 1949 and took his own life in 1984. He attended Ilam School of Fine Art and graduated with honours in painting. While studying in Canterbury, Clairmont was taught by a diverse group of painters, including Don Peebles, Doris Lusk and Rudolf Gopas. Fellow artists Tony Fomison and Philip Trusttum reinforced the expressionistic tendencies Clairmont had developed before he started art school. 

Clairmont typically drew his subject matter from his domestic surroundings. Everyday objects assume a life of their own and take on anthropomorphic, often menacing, qualities. Expressive, gestural brushwork and sharp angular forms add to the tension created in this work.

Clairmont was influenced by German expressionism, which used sharp, angular treatment of form, elongated figures, and bright, discordant colour to create feelings of alienation and anxiety in the viewer. Clairmont was also influenced by the grotesque, threatening images of the Anglo-Irish painter Frances Bacon – and by his commitment to painting as a way of life." ((Ministry for Culture and Heritage 2017)

Do I like their works:

50/50, I like the style and expressiveness of the works and how its colourful and different. Though, I don't like the fact it is so messy and conflicting in colour. 

Is this relevant to my own works: 

no not really, though it would be like 

References:

Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū (2017). Jacqueline Fahey: In her own words. [video] Available at: https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/multimedia/artist-interviews/jacqueline-fahey-in-her-own-words [Accessed 19 May 2019].

Jock Phillips, 'Arts and the nation - Artists reject nationalism', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/artwork/45028/final-domestic-expose-i-paint-myself-by-jacqueline-fahey (accessed 20 May 2019)

The Arts Foundation. (2019). Jacqueline Fahey. [online] Available at: https://www.thearts.co.nz/artists/jacqueline-fahey [Accessed 19 May 2019].

'The scarred couch, the Auckland experience by Philip Clairmont', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/scarred-couch-auckland-experience-philip-clairmont, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 17-May-2017