Tag Archives: Adam Art Gallery

News from Loans: What to see this month

7 September 2012 – 1.59pm

 Have you ever been curious about where Te Papa lends its collection items?  Well…. 

 If you are in Auckland then trot along to Objectspace to see 43 pieces of jewellery by Kobi Bosshard in the latest in the Objectspace Masters of Craft series exhibition.  Kobi Bosshard: Objectspace Masters of Craft opens to the public on Saturday 8 September 2012 and you have until 17 November 2012 to enjoy it.  If you are in Ponsonby at 11am on Saturday 27 September 2012 you have the opportunity to hear Justine Olsen, Curator Contemporary Decorative Arts at Te Papa talking about why Te Papa acquired a significant collection of Kobi Bosshard works, many of which feature in this exhibition.

Brooch, circa 1988, Dunedin. Bosshard, Kobi. Purchased 2002. Te Papa

 If you are in Wellington take the opportunity to see Te Papa collection items in one or both of the following exhibitions.

 The exhibition at the Adam Art Galley at Victoria University of Wellington titled Peripheral Relations: Marcel Duchamp and New Zealand Art 1960-2011 features 24 works from Te Papa’s collections.  Two of these works are by Marcel Duchamp himself.  They came to New Zealand as part of a bequest from Judge Julius Isaacs of New York, in 1983.  Judge Julius and his wife, Betty, knew Duchamp and one of my favourite works is the ‘readymade’ waistcoat that features personalised buttons that spell “B E T T Y”

Portrait of my wife (red scarf). Isaacs, Julius. Bequest of Judge Julius Isaacs, New York, 1983. Te Papa

 At Pataka: Porirua Museum of Arts & Cultures you can see the exquisite bird-shaped, scissor-like, jade implements from Te Papa’s collection in the exhibition Joe Sheehan: Stone Works 2002-2012. This exhibition opened on 25 August 2012 and you have until 25 November 2012 to visit.  It is definitely worth it!

“Final Cut” Assemblage, 2006, Wellington. Sheehan, Joe. Te Papa

 If you are in Dunedin you can see two of Te Papa’s paintings by A H O’Keeffe in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery exhibition A.H. O’Keeffe: Light in the Shadows.  The exhibition opens later in the month on 29 September 2012 and closes on to 9 December 2012.  Alfred O’Keeffe (1858-1941) is known for his spirited brushwork, explorations of light, and meditations on the passing of time. His works encompass portraiture, genre, still life and landscape.

The broken vase, 1929, Dunedin. O’Keeffe, A. H. Purchased 1972 with Ellen Eames Collection funds. Te Papa

 

Charlie, 1937, Dunedin. O’Keeffe, A. H. Gift of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, 1938. Te Papa

 

By Jo Torr | Posted in Borrowing and Lending | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Vivian Lynn talks about her work Guarden gates, 1982

29 October 2010 – 12.41pm

Senior artist Vivian Lynn has for over sixty years been making critical and enquiring work. The recent selective survey I, HERE, NOW Vivian Lynn at the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington (25 October 2008-15 March 2009) curated by Christina Barton, offered a rich selection of over seventy works dating from 1950-2008.

A book, of the same title, has just been published and makes fascinating reading, with essays by Christina Barton and Anna Smith, and short texts on specific works by Ian Wedde, Brian Easton, Pamela Gerrish Nunn, Priscilla Pitts, Charlotte Huddleston, Anne Kirker, Sarah Treadwell and Guyon Neutze.

Guarden gates, a significant work from 1982, is part of Te Papa’s collection. It comprises seven wall mounted sculptural forms made from cyclone gates, human hair and ribbon, and was a key focal point of the Te Papa exhibition We are unsuitable for framing, curated by Charlotte Huddleston which overlapped with the Adam Art Gallery exhibition (28 December 2008-26 July 2009).

Guarden gates, 1982, Vivian Lynn (1931– ), New Zealand. Purchased 1993 with Elise Mourant Collection funds. Te Papa.

Guarden gates, 1982, Vivian Lynn (1931– ), New Zealand. Purchased 1993 with Elise Mourant Collection funds. Te Papa.

Each of the seven structures has its own title: Matrix; Daughter of the father; Sacrifice; Processual ground; Differentiation; Rebirth and Eyes of life, eyes of death. The combination of materials is evocative and visceral, and the formal arrangement of the suite of works heightens their arresting qualities.

As Christina Barton comments in her introductory essay ‘Entwined with hair and other substances, Guarden gates demonstrates Lynn’s treatment of materials as generators of meaning. Together and singly the seven gates establish a complex interplay of opposites (organic and manufactured, structural and ornamental, inside and outside) that engage and contest the politics associated with her chosen materials’ cultural coding and which set out a poetic narrative referencing Jungian concepts of the unconscious. Though not an illustration (Lynn only encountered the story after the work was completed), the installation can be read through the 5000-year-old legend of Inanna, a Sumerian fertility deity representing eros, who sets out on a journey to meet her sister Ereshkigal, queen of the underworld, and has to pass through seven gates, giving up her different powers at each to surrender herself to death, who is later rescued in a symbolic gesture that affirms the cycle of life.’[1]

During the exhibition at Te Papa Vivian Lynn spoke about Guarden gates, how the work evolved and the range of social, political and mythological associations it draws upon. You can see this footage here:

Heather Galbraith
Senior Curator Art

[1] Barton, Christina, I, HERE, NOW Vivian Lynn – an introduction, I, HERE, NOW Vivian Lynn, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, p.16-17.

By Te Papa | Posted in Art, Exhibitions | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 281 other followers