New Zealand Art

Art plays a significant role in how people see themselves and their world. Developments in New Zealand art trace developments in New Zealand's society and national identity.

New Zealand art has been heavily influenced by the nation's geographical isolation from the rest of the world. This forced art to develop free from outside influences—Māori art developed independently of other Polynesian art, and European-style art developed semi-independently of art on the European continent. The psychological effects of this isolation also play a major role in New Zealand art.

The unique character of the land and its people produces distinctively New Zealand traits in the country's artistic traditions. The light and the landscape are classic subjects of New Zealand painting, and social developments and upheavals provided much material and drive to late twentieth-century artists.

Transportation and information technologies overcame New Zealand's isolation, and artists were more strongly influenced by international artistic traditions. In the twenty-first century, New Zealand artists work in a globalised world like their counterparts in other countries, while distinctively New Zealand art continues to be produced with support from both private and public funding.

Background

Before European contact, art was part of Māori spirituality and practicality. The ornate carving and weaving traditions, brought from Polynesia, adapted to new materials and inspirations. These Māori artists used fine materials like jade, and native plants like the well-known koru fern spiral.

When Europeans arrived in New Zealand and colonized, they brought European art styles with them. At first, art was made by Europeans to document the discoveries of explorers and settlers. This art was produced for consumption in Europe. Traditional English art was the predominant style in New Zealand.

When British colonisation escalated in the late nineteenth century, Britain became the dominant cultural influence in New Zealand, much more so than other European countries. For decades, New Zealand artists often either came from Britain, or left New Zealand for Britain.

From the 1930s to the 1950s, artists sought to break away from this British dominance and create an artistic identity that was distinctly New Zealand's. Still very isolated, New Zealand reacted slowly to new art forms, especially continental European developments. Early twentieth-century movements, like cubism and expressionism, did not become influential in New Zealand until the 1950s.

After World War II, the increase in global communication and transportation fostered exposure to international trends. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of global social upheaval. The increasing assertiveness of oppressed populations created new events, topics and experiences for art to reference.

Increasing globalisation meant that, by the mid-1980s, the very idea of a "national" art form had begun to lose its meaning. In the twenty-first century, New Zealand art draws on influences from all over the world, and cannot be said to have a specific national character. Despite this, there are still many works that use uniquely New Zealand symbols and references.

Overview

Early European artists were frequently explorers who produced detailed and realistic images of coastlines, harbours, the landscape and native peoples. Realistic detail became less important with advances in photography in the 1880s.

Romanticism was a major influence, which meant painting was concerned mostly with depicting the natural world and trying to capture the feeling of awe in the presence of nature. Picturesque was another predominant genre. Landscapes dominated New Zealand painting. The clear, hard New Zealand light, quite different from Europe's, became a major feature.

European philosophy and colonialism influenced depictions of Māoris. The ideal of the "noble savage" defined much early European work. Charles Goldie (1870–1947) and Gottfried Lindauer (1836–1926) departed from this tradition and focused instead on documenting everyday Māori life and communities in their work.

Romanticism's dominance was barely disturbed until 1889–90, when several significant European painters, like Petrus van der Velden, James Nairn and Girolamo Nerli brought realism and impressionism to New Zealand from Europe.

Until the 1930s, New Zealand's leading painters mostly left for greater opportunities in Europe. Frances Hodgkins (1869–1947) is considered one of New Zealand's most influential artists; however, this is based on art she produced once she had left New Zealand for Europe. As part of the La Trobe Scheme, technical education superintendent William Sanderson La Trobe imported a number of artists trained at the Royal College of Art and other European institutions to teach art in New Zealand. Robert Nettleton Field (1899–1987) and Christopher Perkins (1891–1968) were particularly influential.

From the 1930s onwards, painters sought to create a national art style. The regionalist style, landscape and portraiture of specifically New Zealand subjects, became influential. Regionalist paintings shared common subject matter, but there was not a single artistic philosophy behind the production of these works. During this period, three painters emerged who came to define New Zealand painting for their generation. Colin McCahon (1919–87), Rita Angus (1908–70) and Toss Woollaston (1910–98), who became known as the Holy Trinity of New Zealand painting, brought modernist influences to portraits exploring New Zealand subjects.

The National Art Gallery was founded in 1936, and this cultural nationalism reached its high point during the country's centennial celebrations in 1940. New Zealand's nationalist focus in art was challenged and overturned from the 1950s onwards.

The 1960s and 1970s saw a further exploration of marginalised subjects. The rise of the feminist movement encouraged greater exploration of female experience; Robyn Kahukiwa (1940–) and Alexis Hunter (1948–2014) are among New Zealand's most notable feminist painters. Kahukiwa's work also has Māori themes. Assertion of Māori rights and sovereignty carried over into increasing artistic influence and indigenous production. Political settlements of Māori grievances also meant the increased funding of Māori art, and the creation of government projects to specifically nurture Māori culture.

By the 1980s, globalisation had advanced to the point that New Zealand art, while distinctive, was influenced by global trends. By 1986 the National Art Gallery argued that there was no definable national art style which could be articulated. To be of New Zealand, the Council says, means situating art within a context of New Zealand references, concepts and events.

Government support for the arts became organised in the mid-twentieth century—the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council was established in 1963 (and renamed to Creative New Zealand in 1994) and the New Zealand Film Commission and the Department of Māori Affairs's Tu Tangata programme in 1978. Creative New Zealand continues to sponsor New Zealand art and artists in the twenty-first century.

Bibliography

Bett, Elva. New Zealand Art: A Modern Perspective. Reed Methuen, 1986.

Eastmond, Elizabeth, and Merimeri Penfold. Women and the Arts in New Zealand: Forty Works 1936–1986. Penguin, 1986.

"History of New Zealand Painting." New Zealand History, 22 July 2014, nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/nz-painting-history. Accessed 23 Feb. 2017.

Phillips, Jock. "Arts and the Nation." Te Ara—The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 22 Oct. 2014, www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/arts-and-the-nation. Accessed 23 Feb. 2017.

Platts, Una. Nineteenth Century New Zealand Artists: A Guide and Handbook. Avon Fine Prints, 1979.

Pound, Francis. Forty Modern New Zealand Paintings. Penguin, 1985.