John Johns
Burnt pine forest, Canterbury

Artwork Detail
The dead tree, a motif in New Zealand painting, replicates into the vanishing point. A conservationist and photographer with the New Zealand Forest Service, John Johns' forthright image of a charred pine plantation reflects his political intention to reveal our complex and at times exploitative relationship with the New Zealand landscape. Appalled by the clear felling of native forest on the West Coast, he said that he ‘couldn’t understand how civilised people could commit such a barbaric crime’.
- Title
- Burnt pine forest, Canterbury
- Artist/creator
- Production date
- 1955
- Medium
- gelatin silver
- Dimensions
- 400 x 508 mm
- Credit line
- Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 1976
- Accession no
- 1976/5/3
- Other ID
- [Archives NZ Reference:AAQA 6506, box 21, M1569c] Reference number (external institution), 1976/5/3/C
- Copyright
- Copying restrictions apply
- Department
- New Zealand Art
- Display status
- Not on display
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