What: Rita Angus: Life and Vision
Where and when: New Gallery, Auckland Art Gallery, to November 1
TJ says: This second major exhibition of the work of one of our most acclaimed artists comes to us from Te Papa and time in Christchurch and Dunedin. It does not include everything in the excellent catalogue but the iconic paintings are there and some wonderful watercolours. It is essential viewing and it is, as it should be, free.
In the first 16 days after it opened, the exhibition of work by Rita Angus at the Auckland Art Gallery attracted more than 10,000 viewers. That makes it one of the best attended shows for many years. Why? Surely it's because any exhibition that addresses an aspect of nationhood takes on a greater significance than other shows and draws unusually big crowds.
What aspects of nationhood are addressed in her paintings? First, she has a clear place in our art history as one of a trio of artists who grew up here and who travelled overseas late in life when they had established their individual style and theme. Colin McCahon and Toss Woollaston were the others in this generation. All three established iconic work that was not only visually powerful but helped to define our attitudes and values. Two of Angus' paintings in particular have this special quality.
The first one has been voted New Zealand's favourite painting. In this show it is directly opposite the top of the stairs. Cass was painted by Angus early in her career in 1937. New Zealanders' idea of splendid scenery is often lonely mountains. We are no fans of lush meadows as done by Constable. We do not want paintings of crowded railway stations in the manner of the English Victorians but rather just enough to show we have established a toehold. Hence the railway and the little wayside halt of Cass. The hills are where we get rid of our stresses. "Surrender to the sky your heart of anger," as James K. Baxter, of the same generation, put it.
We also like to be alone as we come to terms with the landscape. It is calm down by the little station but the clouds show the wind that sweeps the tops. Significantly, there is just one person sitting on the small platform looking rather dismal and out of place in the middle of the mighty rhythm of the hills so deftly caught by the brushwork. And it is placed in a time - the hat on the figure sees to that.
The Portrait of Betty Curnow was made in 1947. This is an artist painting another artist in a manner that is direct, sharp-edged and clear. Curnow was an excellent print-maker, married to the outstanding poet Alan Curnow who was also part of the literary and artistic wave that was altering our cultural perspectives. The portrait is an exact likeness but it also carries other weight. Peter Tomory, former director of the Auckland Art Gallery, rightly called it "a portrait of a generation".
Its formal composition is based on a series of ovals, which may be linked to the fact that the sitter was heavy with her second child at the time. It is democratic. Curnow is shown mending her son's pants - no servants here. The oval portrait of her father in the background indicates her New Zealand heritage. A literary milieu is indicated by the rows of books in the background. Also in the background is a landscape painting by Angus herself, showing that the sitter was open to contemporary art.
Furthermore, the image includes a colour reproduction of a painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder at a time when there were no art history departments in our universities.
However, there was a gathering awareness of the art of the past beyond England and the growth of art books and magazines. When you add the broad patterns on the sitter's blouse which look hand-printed, the big wooden or casein buttons that fasten it plus the audaciously fashionable bright nail varnish, you can see the truth of Tomory's words.
Of course, the detail would be beside the point if this were not a bold, clear portrait, wonderfully drawn and with real carrying power as an image.
Angus' evocative landscapes in oil do much more than give a depiction of a particular scene as most landscapes of her time did. They make a generalisation about our hills, our sky and how the buildings fit rather awkwardly into the landscape. Some of her best work in this way has not travelled with the show from Wellington but the tightly constructed Morning Mist In Hawkes Bay is one excellent example. Her treatment of the light generated a whole theory of how painting should come to terms with our bright clear light.
Being so much part of her time also imposed limitations on Angus. Her works are of modest size and there was no dealer network to sell them. At the time of her death, there were some 600 works in her studio.
It also made her work introverted. This is evidenced by the large number of self-portraits in which she examines herself in various moods and ages. They suggest a strong personality with a great deal of inner strength uncompromising except in a last gracious watercolour showing her in front of her home which is unexpectedly tender. Touchingly, it uses the same colours and tones as the fine portrait of composer Douglas Lilburn, who was at some stage her lover.
Throughout the show the greatest sense of sheer visual delight lies in her watercolours where she could indulge her sense of colour beyond the rather dry flat tones of the oil paintings. Her work in watercolour was both delicate and rich and the sharp precision of her excellent draftsmanship was evident everywhere.
The best take on a metaphorical depth. Her drawing of an isolated tree in the garden done in the middle of World War II and now in Te Papa is a thing of the most intricate tracery, with bare branches set against a plain reaching towards rolling hills. It exquisitely captures the tree and the trinity of birds on it and inescapably suggests the isolation of the artist at a time when society had no place for what she might create. The symbolism is oblique, yet absolutely memorable.
Towards the end of Angus' life, symbolism became much more obvious, especially when she moved to Wellington and made great use of tombstones. This is a development of the laboured sentiment of such earlier work as A Goddess of Mercy, a dry painting of a young woman, two deer and some placid cows.
There are many lovely and insightful things throughout the exhibition and they are at their best when Angus responded to what she saw and knew and let her images speak for themselves.
She made memorable paintings for our society at a time when a sense of national identity was very important.
That was before cultural boundaries became more porous and art and society became more multinational.
For gallery listings, see www.nzherald.co.nz/go/artlistings
