Hotere, Hammond, Goldie, McCahon @Ferner Galleries

Hotere, Hammond, Goldie, McCahon paintings among special works in Ferner Galleries’ 2005 autumn catalogue

Some of New Zealand’s finest modern works by top artists such as Ralph Hotere, Bill Hammond Charles Goldie and Colin McCahon, are included in the Ferner Galleries’ 2005 autumn catalogue.

The catalogue will be launched on March 7 and features the finest contemporary and traditional paintings by leading New Zealand artists.

Published by one of NZ’s leading art dealers, the 85 works in the catalogue will be in huge demand in New Zealand and from overseas.

Other works include contemporary artists such as Michael Illingworth, Pat Hanly, Toss Woollaston, Philip Clairmont, Rick Killeen, John Reynolds, Dick Frizzell, Gretchen Albrecht, Peter Robinson, Chris Heaphy, Kura Te Waru Rewiri and Ian Scott. Some works by historical New Zealand artists including John Kinder and Alfred Walsh also feature.

The catalogue focuses on 20th century New Zealand art although a couple of important historical works are also included, Ferner Galleries’ spokeswoman Natalie Poland said today.

``A 1939 oil on canvas Goldie showing an informal gathering of family members inside a meeting house is a highly sought after work of national and cultural significance. ``The artworks in the catalogue can be seen in three exhibitions spread over Ferner Galleries’ three locations at Auckland city, Parnell and Wellington.’’

One of the most celebrated modern works on offer in the catalogue is by New Zealand’s most lauded modern artists Colin McCahon, Ms Poland said.

His painting Caltex (1965), is a study toward the design for a proposed mural commissioned by the oil company to go in their Fanshawe St. offices in Auckland. Caltex spells out the company name in letters that have taken on the koru form.

It was one of the first instances in which McCahon explicitly used the koru. Had the commission gone ahead it may have been one of the first and most significant examples of a multi-national company injecting their company branding with local flavour.

The catalogue also features a painting by Pat Hanly, one of New Zealand’s foremost modern painters who died last year. The painting on display at Ferner Galleries Parnell is from his major Girl Asleep series.

Of significant historical interest to Aucklanders is Rev. John Kinder’s watercolour painting St John’s College From the Garden (1876).

Ordained an Anglican priest, Kinder emigrated to New Zealand in 1855, where he became Master of the St John’s Theological College, Meadowbank, in 1872.

After being closed for several years the college’s grounds deteriorated and the gardens were raised from a “seemingly hopeless wilderness” to a “place of delight” (according to art critic Hamish Keith), during Kinder’s time there.

Another watercolour by Kinder of St John’s College, painted two years later and seen in the Auckland Art Gallery collection shows how much the grounds were improved over the two years of Kinder’s time.

Several of the buildings, depicted in Kinder’s painting are still in existence today. Kinder died in 1903 and is buried in the graveyard at St John’s College.

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