KEY POINTS:
The medieval wizard Friar Bacon made a mask of brass that was supposed to speak prophetically. It said, "Time was, Time is, Time shall be." This could be a motto for art in Auckland this week.
"Time was" when New Zealand artists of promise felt obliged to leave the country and make a reputation in Europe or the United States. If they succeeded they stayed. Later in the century there was a change. There were artists who did well in Europe and returned here. Edward Bullmore was an early example of this new development. Sadly, he died young, at the age of 45.
An exhibition organised by Tauranga Art Gallery and now at Auckland University's Gus Fisher Gallery is a reminder of the quality of his work.
There is a certain irony that his earliest exhibition was held in Tauranga where it drew criticism for including a realistic nude. The painting, which is in this exhibition, is an exceptionally fine work.
Bullmore was extremely unusual among New Zealand painters because as a young man he played rugby at provincial level for Canterbury, Auckland and the Bay of Plenty.
The ruggedness of his early self-portraits reflects this milieu. Other works done before he left the country are the products of the typical Fine Arts training of the time: landscapes, portraits and groups with a hint of social criticism. They are not innovative or extreme but they do show excellent draftsmanship.
His work's intensity increased after he arrived in Europe in 1959. A small portrait of his wife done in Italy is much more incisive than an earlier larger work made here. The big jump forward came in England when he abandoned conventional subjects and materials in favour of constructions in wood covered in canvas.
These were stretched and stitched into three-dimensional shapes that were original in construction and powerfully expressive. Bullmore called them "Astroforms". He exhibited in shows alongside outstanding British contemporaries. Several works were bought by the film director Stanley Kubrick, with one used in his notorious film A Clockwork Orange.
The exhibition, curated by Penelope Jackson, is a clear guide to the nature and development of Bullmore's work.
The finest object in the show is a winged, singularly beautiful sculpture above the stairs in the foyer. It is made from three Bentwood chairs. The installation in the smaller gallery which also takes flight should not be missed.
Giovanni Intra, who also died young, was a provocative leader of a later generation. The huge crowd of young people who attended the opening at Artspace is a tribute to his reputation. The show is called Beginning in the Archive: Giovanni Intra 1989-1996.
The show of drawings, photographs and related materials is featured in the story below, but its character is summed up by a commentator included in the documentation who mentions that "the artist's fetishism is spiky". This may be a reference to the frequent occurrence of hypodermic syringes in the drawings. It is very much the Geist in the Zeit.
Time present is represented this week by two exhibitions by long-established artists. Richard Killeen, whose work is at Ivan Anthony, has always been avant garde in his use of inventive composition and new technology. Mal Bouzaid at Oedipus Rex, using more conventional means, has had a long struggle with the conflicting demands of landscape and abstraction.
Killeen's show is of his celebrated cut-out works made from up to 67 separate pieces. This show demonstrates that each piece is related to others not only by imagery as in Sunset Sunrise and the hanging drops of Dew but also by the way each image reflects a slightly different emotional response.
Every work has its individuality, too, from the weighty, chopping quality of Tools and Weapons to the delicacy of Insect Inside.
There is less variation in the eight paintings by Bouzaid, made up of horizontal bands of colour applied energetically over underpaint. They irresistibly suggest the experience of looking out to sea. Variations are not of form but of mood, suggested by titles such as Becalmed, Heat Wave and Night Vision. The pale Breathing Space successfully matches mood and colour.
"The time that shall be" is indicated by the work of young artists and there are three of them at Starkwhite. The most striking is Akiko Diegel, who has cut and stitched old woollen blankets into shopping-bag shapes and stacked them in piles. The work owes a lot to the German artist Joseph Beuys but whereas he stacked huge heaps of felt that were enough to comfort a regiment, these heaps are small, domestic and very New Zealand.
Lively movement is created by the way the little altars of blanket move from plain to more colourful across the length of the work. This fine piece augurs well for the future.
At the galleries
What: Edward Bullmore: A Surrealist Odyssey
Where and when: Gus Fisher Gallery, 74 Shortland St, to Feb 28
TJ says: A long-needed, carefully curated exhibition of the work of a New Zealand painter who achieved considerable overseas recognition.
What:Giovanni Intra: Beginning in the Archive: 1989-1996
Where and when: Artspace, 300 Karangahape Rd, to Feb 28
TJ says: After a lively career in Auckland, a premature death overseas robbed us of a stimulating commentator and practitioner.
What:Richard Killeen: Cutouts
Where and when: Ivan Anthony, 312 Karangahape Rd, to Feb 28
TJ says: Killeen's well-known cutouts; a great store of images more easily digestible than usual.
What: Mal Bouzaid : Beyond the Horizon
Where and when:Oedipus Rex Gallery, Upper Khartoum Place, to Feb 21
TJ says: Thick bands of rich colour evocative of sand, sea and sky.
What:Work by Akiko Diegel, Boris Busch, Trenton Garratt
Where and when:Starkwhite, 510 Karangahape Rd, to March
TJ says: Three artists new to the scene. The outstanding work is by Akiko Diegel who gets good mileage from old woollen blankets, though Trenton Garratt's sculpture made from ceramic sticks is a complex improvisation.
