TJ McNamara: Making musical art with dark notes

Art and music have always been closely allied. Leonardo had musicians play to keep the smile on the face of Mona Lisa while he painted her portrait. Last century, the origins of abstract art lay in music. Yet it is unusual for art to be inspired by the manuscript notation itself. In the remarkable work Score by Michael Shepherd the painting is based not only on the life, music and personality of the composer Douglas Lilburn but also on the diagrams he used to lay out his electronic music in the last stages of his career.

The work is in four panels and stretches along two walls in the lovely new gallery called Jane Sanders Art Agent at the bottom of Shortland St. The stylish rooms make good use of the features of a very old building.

Exhibitions by Shepherd are rare. His paintings, during his mature career, have been very much concerned with social history and have made use of documents: envelopes, stamps, letters as well as photographs and such things as archeological digs.

The present work has the appearance of a document though the marks on it are abstract. Among the clusters of marks there is lettering - short remarks from letters to and from Lilburn, poems by friends and strictures from his parents that stayed in his memory. There are also beautifully drawn numbers that indicate that reading the panels left to right is to follow the progressions of Lilburn's life and refer to the immense hoard of documents he left at his death.

Given all this detail, how does the piece work as art? Close up, the mark-making is fascinating as it ranges from vertical shakes that suggest bird song through intricate clusters of marks that suggest clouds of notes that sometimes coalesce into quivering forms. Later there are loops that enfold indications of themes. Finally there are lines that relate to Lilburn's last manuscript with indications about music falling into patterns of hills of the farm where he grew up.

From a distance one cannot read the texts woven into the work but broad forms become apparent as one progresses through the panels.

Given this it remains that the overall black and white of the work and its calligraphic manner denies the subtle colour and rich surfaces that have marked Shepherd's work in the past. This large and important, deeply meditated work deserves to end up in a public collection.

A good deal of art this week involves black. Because our dealer galleries are open to the public we have the chance to see the work of outstanding artists even though they may be priced beyond our means.

At the Gow Langsford Gallery it is possible to see how, as far back as 1969, Ralph Hotere turned the use of black on its head making it rich, warm and deep. On his fertile, black space he imposed fine lines that sang. The lyrical quality of his work is apparent in the circles of Black Painting No 39 and particularly in the work from 1970 from the Melody/Malady series where the word "melody" sings against the dark supported by groups of fine lines placed like grace notes. The show is completed by works using black backgrounds by Shane Cotton and Darryn George.

There is plenty of black, too, for anyone prepared to make the pilgrimage up to St Paul Street Galleries at AUT. The blackness is the dark of the night sky as the exhibition Out of This World is concerned for the most part with astronomy. As you might expect from its association with an institution it is the model of a modern exhibition. There are large canvases and tiny works, videos and installations, local and international artists and even a wood engraving.

A work by Colin McCahon shows a leap of faith as a comet over Muriwai but far less conventional is an extraordinary film by Ben Rivers of masses of people climbing and descending a mountain shrouded in mist and a video by Jorge Molder where the screen is a ceiling with an intense black square. Out of this abstract space, feet, then a whole man emerges. It makes a perfect metaphor for the imagination producing a humanist manifestation.

Something less than perfect is Starting from Behind by Simon Denny at Michael Lett. This is another installation about framing, vision and perception. We are confronted by three televisions set in frames. We see only the backs. A fourth frame contains towels with television scenes on them. All four face holes in the gallery wall that reveal framing and ancient windows. In an adjacent room is another TV, working this time, which shows dimly a whole lot of sets as in a showroom and a woman doing a sales pitch to music. The whole is linked to the gallery situation but is cold, hard and curiously lifeless.

Lifelessness is part of the paintings of Scott Gardiner at Whitespace. His previous work has shown rocky landscapes devoid of any trace of human occupancy. This show takes a big step forward by using colour to add to the strangeness of these desolate landscapes.

Desolate they might be but the carefully detailed rock formations show the grandeur of the earth that survives even the most apocalyptic of futures.

More warm is the sculpture by Steve Woodward in the back room at Whitespace. He is the sculptor chosen to do a large work in stone in St Patrick's Square. His considerable abilities as a stone carver are shown here by a heavy disc of granite engraved with landscape patterns. A gentle touch will set it rocking for minutes on its stone base. A work quite different in feeling, Clip, also rocks.

Woodward has done many works overseas and here there are five. Riversticks in bronze are smaller versions of immense works in China that suggest the flow and gentle bends of a river.

There are fine photos of these impressive works in an excellent monograph by Robin Woodward (no relation) that accompanies the exhibition.

AT THE GALLERIES

What: Score, by Michael Shepherd
Where and when: Jane Sanders, Level 1, Blackett's Building, cnr Shortland-Queen Sts, to Oct 30 (Wed-Fri, 10am-5.30pm)
TJ says: A valiant attempt to capture the life and music of Douglas Lilburn on wall panels filled with marks remotely related to musical notation.

What: Black to Black, Darryn George/ Shane Cotton/ Ralph Hotere
Where and when: Gow Langsford Gallery, 26 Lorne St, to Oct 10
TJ says: An opportunity to see three generations of outstanding artists making powerful use of black.

What: Out of This World, local and international artists
Where and when: St Paul St Galleries, AUT, St Paul St, to Oct 16
TJ says: Artists in a variety of media using mountains, the darkness of the night sky and blackness itself to striking effect.

What: Starting from Behind, by Simon Denny
Where and when: Michael Lett, 478 Karangahape Rd, to Oct 10
TJ says: An elaborate installation based on the back of TVs and what is behind a wall to show how life is framed.

What: Future Memories, by Scott Gardiner; sculpture, by Steve Woodward
Where and when: Whitespace, 12 Crummer Rd, to Oct 10
TJ says: Gardiner's intricately drawn rock formations are now allied to atmospheric colour with the grandeur of even a bare earth; Woodward's sculpture makes clear his virtuosity in handling stone and bronze.

For gallery listings, see www.nzherald.co.nz/go/artlistings