Art on Sunday! New work going LIVE tonight: a selection of mid-century works including a nude study from Evelyn Page; a mixed media figurative work from Ted Bullmore; a charming work in tempera from John Weeks; and a mixed media drawing from Richard Killeen.
Evelyn Page ONZM (1899-1988)
Born in Christchurch, Evelyn Page studied at Canterbury School of Art. In 1922, Page was elected to the Canterbury Society of Arts, which enabled her to begin working as a professional artist , exhibiting and selling portraits and landscape works around New Zealand. Page was a founding member of the group of Canterbury artist known as The Group. These artists were interested in breaking traditions in the art world and wanted to start a modernist movement.
Page was awarded an ONZM in 1987 for her services to art.
Richard Killeen ONZM (1946-)
Richard Killeen Is a significant New Zealand painter, sculptor and digital artist . He was awarded an ONZM in 2002 for his contribution to the arts. Killeen studied at Elam School of Fine Arts from 1964 to 1966. Primarily a painter, his ‘discontent with the compression caused by the four static points of the frame’ led to what was termed his off-stetcher cut-outs in 1978. These are created from cardboard templates, which he used to cut aluminium sheeting, lacquer, and paint. By the mid 90’s he was creating digital imagery as the base for his work.
John Weeks OBE (1886-1965)
John Weeks, born in Devonshire, England, emigrated to NZ when he was a child. Weeks was one of the most influential staff members at the Elam Art School of the University of Auckland, where he taught from 1930 to 1954.
{I BELIEVE
That technical skill is much overrated in painting and that the not unnatural desire to emulate closely the appearance of nature usually forces the medium beyond its limits – and frequently ends in superficiality. Nature is nature and must be accepted as such. That paint is pigment and has its very definite limitations. Best results are obtained when these limitations are observed and respected.}
Edward (Ted) Bullmore (1933-78)
Edward (Ted) Bullmore grew up in rural Southland and trained at Canterbury University School of Fine Arts in the 1950s and at Auckland Teachers’ College before heading to London. He spent ten years in London, teaching part-time, and living as an artist in the highly charged avant-garde atmosphere of Post-War London. He returned to New Zealand in 1969 to teach art at Rotorua Boys High School until his death.
Ted gained significant recognition in the art scene of 1960s London alongside his better-known peers Pat Hanly and Ralph Hotere; and his work was collected by none other than film auteur Stanley Kubrick, with two of his shaped canvases turning up in the 1971 movie A Clockwork Orange.
Ted is considered a pioneer of surrealism in New Zealand art and is known for his joyous colour, and the relentlessly innovative forms of his figurative works.