—
exhibition Details
One of the highlights of the exhibition is the first display of Tony Fomison's The Ponsonby Madonna.
Most people have photographs of family and friends at home but they may not call them 'portraits'. That term's meanings have expanded since it conveyed sitting quietly on many occasions before an oil painter. Portraits give us visual information about people, what they look like and who they are. They do not need to flatter but they do need to express that someone is observed carefully.
Michael Illingworth's Man and woman figures with still life and flowers of 1971 updates the story of Adam and Eve and places them in a stylish local interior. Humorous imaginative portraits were a speciality of Illingworth and he was a key figure painter for New Zealand of the 1970s.
Tony Fomison's From a photo of Patara Te Tuhi shows the influence that photography has had on portrait painting. The Māori kaumatua is an updated homage to the Goldie and Lindauer portrait tradition. Yvonne Todd's Limpet is a fantastical contemporary portrait where clothes, makeup and adornment become as much a part of the portrait as the figure herself.
Edith Amituanai's Miss Amituanai has already become a classic image of urban Pacific life in its celebration of the family. The interior is not an irrelevant background to the portrait but inseparable from the portrait's meaning. Ben Cauchi's 2005 Self-portrait skilfully honours a traditional photographic technique but updates it into the present.
- Date
- —
- Curated by
- Ron Brownson
- Location
- New Gallery
- Cost
- Free entry
Related Artworks
At Grotto Road, Onehunga, 10 May 1980
gelatin silver print, toned with gold
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Mark Adams and the Partners of Ernst & Young, 1995
At Taitapu, Banks Peninsula, 1971
gelatin silver print, toned with gold
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Mark Adams and the partners of Ernst & Young, 1995
Portrait of Betty Curnow
On display
Hone Ropiha (John Hobbs)
On display
The Ponsonby Madonna
oil and alkyd on hessian
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased with funds from the Lyndsay Garland Trust, 2006
Memories: Ena Te Papatahi, a Chieftainess of the Ngapuhi Tribe
oil on canvas
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, bequest of Emily and Alfred Nathan, 1952
The Calm Close of Valour's Various Day
oil on canvas
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, bequest of Emily and Alfred Nathan, 1952
Denis Cohn, art dealer, Auckland. 20.3.85
black and white photograph
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Denis Cohn and Bil Vernon, 1994
Nava
fibreglass, mother of pearl, waxed thread, India ink, pearls, feathers
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 2003
Maven Fuller
C-type print
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Patrons of the Auckland Art Gallery, 2003
Limpet
lightjet print on archival photographic paper
Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 2005
Alice Bayke
C-type print
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Patrons of the Auckland Art Gallery, 2003
Rebecca Weston
C-type print
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Patrons of the Auckland Art Gallery, 2003
Emerey Weschlette
C-type print
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Patrons of the Auckland Art Gallery, 2003
Susan Blunton
C-type print
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Patrons of the Auckland Art Gallery, 2003
First Portrait, at Beverage Street, Christchurch, 1971
gelatin silver print, toned with gold
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Mark Adams and the Partners of Ernst & Young, 1995
Tony Fomison 1978
gelatin silver print, toned with gold
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Marti Friedlander, with assistance from the Elise Mourant Bequest, 2001
At Chalfont Crescent, Mangere, 10 May 1979
gelatin silver print, toned with gold
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Mark Adams and the Partners of Ernst & Young, 1995
At Beverage Street, Christchurch, 1971
gelatin silver print, toned with gold
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Mark Adams and the Partners of Ernst & Young, 1995
The Marys at the Tomb
oil on canvas, lined
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Friends of the Auckland Art Gallery, 1960
From a photo of Patara Te Tuhi
oil on board
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Marc and Nicole Rands, in memory of their father, Richard Rands, 1988
Marchers
bronze and oil
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Friends of the Auckland Art Gallery, 2001
Buckwheat
fibreglass, mother of pearl, gold, feathers, waxed thread
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 2003
Untitled 1
fibreglass, resin, fake hair and dental teeth
Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 2003
Catherine 'Kata' Smith
fibreglass, mother of pearl, diridamu seeds, glass, sterling silver, waxed thread
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 2003
Sofia
fibreglass, mother of pearl, waxed thread
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 2003
Bridesmaids
oil on canvas
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Lucy Carrington Wertheim, 1948
A Hundred Years Have Passed
oil on canvas
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the artist in memory of his mother, 1939
A Noble Relic of a Noble Race
oil on canvas
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Auckland Society of Arts, 1911