Something old turned into something new

By LINDA HERRICK

These might be the worst-quality paintings you'll see reproduced on these pages for some time. They form part of Auckland dealer and "art maker" Warwick Brown's New Vision series, and they created a ruckus at his packed-out Ellerton Gallery in Mt Eden on opening night.

It wasn't so much the amateur-hour New Zealand landscapes but what Brown has done to the 25 works picked up from junk shops.

Using the subtitle "An old hand on old paintings", Brown has painted dark, monolithic forms on top of their surfaces, prompting a tirade in front of 150 guests from a well-known landscape artist he will not name.

"This artist took the view I'd ruined the work and had insulted the genre of landscape. He took it very personally," says Brown. "I said none of the works cost more than $40. He went, 'Aha, so it's about money, is it? Now you're saying landscapes are not worth anything'."

The artist stormed out after more shouting.

"It was a lovely argument," says Brown, a former lawyer who owned the Portfolio and Warwick Brown Galleries in Lorne St in the 90s, and has published three books: 100 New Zealand Paintings by 100 New Zealand Artists, Another 100 New Zealand Artists, and a study of Auckland artist Ian Scott.

"I thought it was great because you seldom get any overt response at art shows, not like the good old days in the 70s when artists used to fling wine over each other and their work at openings."

He says New Vision is based loosely on the concept established by Colin McCahon, whose work before 1961 evolved from relatively realistic landscapes into the mid-60s visionary monolithic Gates series, "his way of conveying what he thought was the spiritual force of the land".

"I thought I'd take where he got with it and turn it right back to the source and put the shapes on top of the original pictures. But I am not attempting to copy McCahon."

Contrary to the opening-night accusation, Brown was not trying to ridicule the landscapes either, bought at shops from Warkworth to Papatoetoe. While he agrees some of them are "very, very boring pictures ... the original artists' vision was sincerely felt or they wouldn't have bothered doing it".

In a small way, the show has resurrected debate about the stature of the landscape in art.

"Landscape is really pooh-poohed by the true intelligentsia in the art world, which is why the Kelliher Art Award fell over," says Brown.

"It was counter-productive to the sponsors, getting stick from all quarters. But there are dozens if not hundreds of talented painters who still just do landscapes. Quite a few contemporary artists, including McCahon, have confronted the landscape and tried to do something different with it."

With price tags ranging up to $500, has Brown improved the works or ruined them? "I didn't just bung the forms on any old way. I tended to put them in places where I thought it might energise the picture and mask out dead bits.

"That saved my conscience somewhat. I believe I've given them a new lease of life but I never would have done this to a painting the public thought was worth more than $200, even if someone had given it to me.

"The buying of the work from what you'd call more or less disreputable 'art retail sources' was part of the conceptual work," he says with - as far as I can tell - a straight face.

Many of the works are not signed or dated, though some hideous 60s frames do that job for them, but wherever possible Brown has placed a statement on the back citing source (name of junkshop), title (which may be as banal as Netting or New Dawn) and artist's notes.

The surprise of it, none more so than to Brown himself, is that his New Vision series is selling, "and so something new and lasting can be made of works that would otherwise sink without trace".

* New Vision, Ellerton Gallery (by appointment, ph 630 5219), 40 Ellerton Rd, Mt Eden, until November 30; new works by Kaiaua artist Tony Johnston are also on show.