Humanities Technician Cassandra Bahr has been working in the Collected Archives at Te Papa, cataloguing and rehousing papers from people connected to Te Papa’s collecting areas. Here, she highlights parts of the archives held at Te Papa of the sculptor John Edgar.
Edgar was committed to being a full-time artist. He maintained relationships with at least 15 dealer galleries in New Zealand, as well as museums here and overseas. He usually intended his exhibitions to tour throughout New Zealand, not restricting himself to Auckland. While travelling the country, he regularly pushed for collaborations with other jewellery makers or carvers.
He co-started the newsletter Details, which published articles by and for jewellers, stone and bone carvers, metalsmiths, and other craftspeople.
He successfully wrote many Creative NZ grants and supported other artists’ applications (such as Elena Gee) with references. His dedication to supporting other artists and sharing his knowledge was genuine. As well as grant support, he set up a collective, taught apprentices, and was keen to share his workshop with beginning artists.
International knowledge gathering
Early in his career, Edgar travelled to China, Taiwan, and South Korea to learn more about their jade carving traditions. He visited jade factories, quarries, mines, the Taklamakan Desert, and the Great Wall of China. His photos of the Great Wall include more images of piles of stones than of the views of and from the Wall itself.
He took photos of any large stone sculptures he came across!
The man behind the stones
I admit that I didn’t really ‘get’ Edgar or his art at first – I was overwhelmed by the sheer quantities of photos he took of his works, all abstract stone carvings. But then I began cataloguing his numerous diaries. Edgar kept continuous diaries and notebooks for over 40 years!
I read snippets of these as I worked and got a glimpse of the man behind the stones. I started learning the reasoning, stories, and histories behind each artwork and saw how much they meant to him. Understanding their contexts gave me a much fuller appreciation of the artworks. I still suspect that his sculptures carry much more weight in physical form rather than photographic – luckily, some of them are on public display outdoors.
Edgar’s biggest impact on the land was not with his sculptures, but with conservation efforts. He was deeply passionate about the Waitākere Ranges, which were threatened with a rubbish dump, subdivision and development in the 1970s. He served as chair of the Waitakere Ranges Protection Society for many years, and contributed to their publication Waitakere Ranges: Ranges of Inspiration.
Future-proofing his archive
Edgar meticulously documented his art, and his photos over the years reflect changing technology – the archive includes printed photos, negatives in various formats, Betacam video, Super 8 film, colour transparencies, and digital photos. Here are two of his digital photos, showing the range of his work from intricate jade carvings to imposing stone sculptures.
Read more
- For more about John Edgar, read John Edgar ONZM, 1950–2021.
- To explore his work, see John Edgar – Sculptor.
I’d never heard of this man, this was very interesting.