David Maskill, Specialist, Art.
This unique auction provides an opportunity to view and acquire works by artists who were part of a burgeoning movement. The activities of The Group saw the emergence of a distinctive thread in New Zealand art; its early participants were united in their collective rejection of ‘chocolate-box’ sentimentality favoured in the art of The Group’s parent institution, the Canterbury Society of Arts. They looked instead to new trends in progressive artmaking, and sought to capture something unique to New Zealand. Some embraced modernist trends more radically than others, but they were all committed to a new vision for art. Reviewing those artists who participated in exhibitions by The Group reads like an art history lesson. During the early years of The Group in the 1930s, exhibitors included Evelyn Page, Robert Nettleton Field, Christopher Perkins, Rita Angus, Leo Bensemann, Louise Henderson, Olivia Spencer Bower, Rata Lovell-Smith, Margaret Frankel, Doris Lusk and Toss Woollaston. In the 1940s, they were joined by the likes of Colin McCahon, Douglas MacDiarmid, Bill Sutton, John Weeks and Russell Clark. These artists strongly influenced the development of New Zealand art from this time. The 1950s saw the consolidation of The Group as the primary platform for progressive New Zealand art; the number of exhibited works and artists increasing dramatically. Artists from outside of Christchurch began to exhibit regularly, such as Dunedin-based Frank Gross and Auckland-based Milan Mrkusich. In the 1960s, a younger generation of artists showed alongside their more established peers. Artists such as Tony Fomison, Philip Trusttum, Quentin MacFarlane, Don Binney, John Drawbridge, Tanya Ashken, Michael Illingworth, Don Peebles, Richard Killeen and Ralph Hotere were involved at this time. Despite the growing network of dealer galleries in the main centres, The Group continued to hold exhibitions into the 1970s. Newcomers such as Philip Clairmont and Don Driver exhibited their bold art alongside work by their older colleagues. The Group’s stalwart, Olivia Spencer Bower, exhibited a suite of linocuts in the final Group exhibition in 1977, forty-four years after her first showing with The Group in 1933. It is a delight to present many artworks by these iconic artists. It has also been a pleasure to produce a catalogue that references the strong design aesthetic of The Group. One of the distinctive aspects of their catalogues was the use of modern design and typography. This was especially the case from the mid-1940s when they were designed by Leo Bensemann, and printed by the Caxton Press. This aesthetic has directly inspired the design of this publication. We have also reproduced two classic New Zealand poems by Denis Glover and Charles Brasch, publishers and writers of the Caxton Press, to acknowledge the interconnections between the artists of the Group and their literary contemporaries. It has been a real pleasure researching this period in New Zealand’s art history, working with collectors, and hearing the stories of The Group artists and the work they produced. It is a joy to showcase works from this significant time in our cultural history.
The Group Show: Retrospective Exhibition 1927 – 1947 (Christchurch: The Caxton Press, 1947). Held in the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puria o Waiwhetū Collection.
David Maskill Specialist, Art david@webbs.co.nz +64 27 256 0900
Webb's
2022
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