Two sculptors, two projects

10 October 2013

Two sculptors, two projects

John Panting, Untitled, 1972-73, steel, 183 x 305 x 152cm. Image copyright of the Estate of John Panting and Poussin Gallery. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna o Waiwhetu.

Two new exhibitions focused on sculpture are to feature at the Adam Art Gallery, based at Victoria University of Wellington.

One showcases a group of steel sculptures produced between 1972 and 1974 by the late modernist sculptor John Panting. The other is a commissioned project by renowned contemporary artist Peter Robinson.

John Panting’s untimely death by motorcycle accident at the age of 34 brought a dramatic end to his whirlwind evolution as a sculptor. The works in this exhibition were all made in the last three years of his life and demonstrate his experimental and open approach to materials developed in the vibrant context of the British art scene at the time.

“New Zealand is extremely fortunate to have such fine examples of Panting’s work,” says London-based guest curator Sam Cornish. “This only came about because of the foresight of gallery directors, who acquired Panting’s works from the memorial exhibition that toured New Zealand in 1976-77, as a tribute to the New Zealand-born artist.”

“We are very pleased to be showing these works together for the first time since that exhibition,” says Adam Art Gallery Director, Christina Barton. “This is an important project for us, because Panting is enjoying renewed attention in Britain as the result of a new generation’s interest in the abstract sculpture of the 1970s.”

Peter Robinson, one of New Zealand’s leading artists, cites Panting as one of his influences. Since 2006, Robinson has been exploring a history of modernist sculpture, reworking its forms using materials such as polystyrene, felt, Perspex and piano wire.

Robinson has produced a new body of work, Cuts and Junctures, which has been especially conceived for the Adam Art Gallery’s spaces.

“Made from coloured felt and aluminium, this is both a remarkable intervention into the gallery’s spaces and a sensitive extension of sculpture’s very particular language,” says Barton.

In addition to the two exhibitions, the Adam Art Gallery also features State of the art: reproductive prints from the Renaissance to now, curated by Victoria University art historian David Maskill with his Honours students, which showcases reproductive prints from the 16th century to the present day.
The exhibitions open on Friday 11 October at 6.00pm. Media are welcome.

For more information visit www.adamartgallery.org.nz

What: John Panting: Spatial Constructions, curated by Sam Cornish
Peter Robinson: Cuts and Junctures  
State of the art: reproductive prints from the Renaissance to now, curated by David Maskill and his ARTH 403 Honours students

Where: Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington, Gate 3, Kelburn Parade

When: 12 October20 December 2013
Tuesday–Sunday, 11am–5pm (closed on Monday)
Free entry

ENDS

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