Мервин Уильямс (художник)
Мервин Уильямс | |
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Рожденный | Мервин Джон Уильямс 22 апреля 1940 года Whakatāne , Новая Зеландия |
Образование | Колледж Авондейла |
Альма -матер | Эламская школа изящных искусств |
Известен для | Живопись и другие средства массовой информации |
Движение | Оптическое искусство, модернизм и цветовое поле |
Супруг |
Хелен Джермин
|
Дети | 3 |
Мервин Джон Уильямс (родился 22 апреля 1940 года) - художник из новозеландцев. Он был ранним представителем OP Art в Новой Зеландии в 1960 -х - 70 -х годах. В 1990 году он создал стиль иллюзорной абстрактной живописи, основанной на Chiaroscuro , создавая впечатление трехмерных форм и текстур на плоском холсте. [ 1 ] С 2009 года он использовал цифровые методы в возвращении в художественный стиль OP. Уильямс почти уникален среди своих современников в новозеландском искусстве за то, что он принял абстракцию в начале своей карьеры и исключительно повсюду. [ 2 ] Его работы проводятся во всех крупных государственных коллекциях Новой Зеландии. Монография Эдварда Ханфлинга была опубликована Рон Санг в 2014 году [ 3 ] совпадает с выставкой опроса.
Ранний период жизни
[ редактировать ]Уильямс родился 22 апреля 1940 года. [ 4 ] Он переехал между регионом залива больших и Окленда в период с 1940 по 1951 год, когда он постоянно поселился в Окленде. Он начал среднюю школу в колледже Avondale в 1954 году, где его преподаватель искусства был Роберт Нетлтон Филд . В 1956 году Уильямс был обязан преждевременно покинуть школу, чтобы помочь поддержать свою семью после смерти своего отца, хотя Филд продолжал наставлять своего бывшего ученика. [ 5 ]
В 1955 году Уильямс начал работу в керамической фирме Crown Lynn , где он получил руководство и поддержку от Фрэнка Карпэя . [ 5 ] Впоследствии он использовал более интенсивную возможность дизайна в студии искусства и дизайна Ted Dutch , проходя обучение по живописи, дизайне и графическим методам до 1961 года, когда он создал свою собственную студию. В 1957 и 1958 годах Уильямс посетил Элам Школу изящных искусств , где он встретил Дона Бинни и Грэма Перси . [ 6 ]
Уильямс женился на Хелен Джермине в 1962 году. У них было три сына, а с 1965 по 1972 год жил недалеко от пляжа Те Хенга / Бетеллс в Западном Окленде . [ 7 ] Пара развелась в 1985 году. [ 4 ] В середине 1960-х годов фотограф Марти Фридлендер сделал серию портретов Уильямса. [ 7 ]
Карьера
[ редактировать ]Early work
[edit]Williams made oil paintings as well as works in gouache on paper during the years 1956 to 1961. They feature adjacent and layered patches of mainly muted colour along with linear elements. There are similarities to the paintings of Ted Dutch and to mid-twentieth-century School of Paris abstract painters, such as Vieira da Silva and Georges Mathieu.[6] Beginning in the early 1960s, Williams began to make work with strong geometric shapes influenced by Josef Albers and Mark Rothko.
Op art
[edit]
In the early to mid 1960s, Williams began working in the Op art style that developed over the same period in Europe and the United States. His compositions of closely spaced lines, geometric shapes and high-keyed, contrasting colours were carefully rendered to create optical illusions and vibrations.[8] He aimed to create the impression of movement and three-dimensionality on a static, two-dimensional painted surface, and to bring the experience of visual art closer to that of music, unfolding over time.[9] The Chromatic Invention series (1969–70) reflects the artist's admiration of Johann Sebastian Bach, and his belief that invention is the most important quality in art.[10]
Williams' work of the 1960s and 1970s relates to that of European artists such as Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely.[11] Op art came to prominence in the United States with the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition The Responsive Eye in 1965, and had a large public following.[12] In New Zealand, a small number of artists worked in an Op style, notably Gordon Walters and . Ray Thorburn Williams and Walters travelled to Melbourne, Australia, together in 1975, breaking their return journey to visit Sydney to see an exhibition of recent paintings by Bridget Riley at the Coventry Gallery.[13]
Williams’ Op art was partly a reaction against the emphasis on expressive mark-making and individual style in 1950s Abstract Expressionism.[9] He believed in the universal appeal of optical illusion, declaring that it “appeals to a more innocent side of ourselves”.[14] He experimented with photo-mechanical techniques to produce optical patterns as efficiently as possible and in multiples, thereby making it available to more people. The exactitude and impersonal finish of Williams’ paintings directs the viewer’s attention to the images themselves and their own perception, rather than the artist’s touch or sensibility.[14]
Important series from Williams’ Op art phase of the 1970s include the Daedal series, the Quotient (1973) and Delta (1978–80) series. These series were shown during the 1970s at Barry Lett Galleries in Auckland and the Elva Bett Gallery in Wellington. A selection from all three series was shown in a two-person exhibition with Gordon Walters at the Canterbury Society of Arts Gallery in 1984.[15]
Crusties
[edit]In 1980 Williams visited New York and London, and saw the exhibition A New Spirit in Painting at the Royal Academy, London, and other important exhibitions in New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. Upon his return he began to make paintings with thickly encrusted paint and simpler compositions.[16] However, the interest in perception continued, as the raised paint surfaces and layering of colours generated a play of light and shadow.[17]
Williams was part of the Seven Painters/The Eighties exhibition that toured New Zealand during 1982–83, starting at the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui.[18] The exhibition also featured Gretchen Albrecht, Stephen Bambury, Max Gimblett, Richard Killeen, James Ross, and Ian Scott.[19] In 1983, Williams was included in the exhibition The Grid: Lattice and Network at the Auckland City Art Gallery.[20][21]
In the second half of the 1980s, Williams continued his quest to “articulate light”,[22] using gels and pastes to produce a concrete or tactile support that he then sprayed with thin films of paint. Paintings such as Chart (1989) and Desert Sand (1986) generate changing effects of light and colour that depend on the conditions under which they are seen and the position of the viewer.[23]
Williams’ paintings of this period have similarities with the 1970s “thick field” abstract paintings of American artists Jules Olitski and Larry Poons.[24] However, art historian Michael Dunn contrasts Williams’ interest in light and illusion with the emphasis on flatness and objecthood in American abstraction.[25]
Wooden constructions
[edit]
In 1989, Williams was awarded the Tylee Cottage Residency in Whanganui, a position administered by the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua, and he continued to live in Whanganui until 1991. He collected wooden detritus washed down the Whanganui River from beaches around the river mouth, and with the aid of a local joiner created subtle geometric compositions.[26] Williams was attracted to the natural textures, tones and patterns of the weathered wood, and he has said that their “surfaces had an eloquence about them that had evolved spontaneously, rather than been laboured over with modelling paste.”[27] Notable examples are Odyssey (1989, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki) and Organon 1 (1989, Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua).
The wooden constructions were exhibited at Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, in July–August 1989, and later that year under the title Points of Departure at the Sarjeant Gallery, where Williams also made a large sculptural installation in the central domed space.[28]
Illusionary paintings
[edit]
During 1990–91, while living in Whanganui, Williams worked on techniques for creating the illusion of physical texture on a flat, painted surface. Eventually, using a thin film of paint and creating fine shifts in tone and colour, he achieved an almost photographic rendering of effects of light and shadow.[29] The series evolved as a number of distinct formats or groups, each based on a simple, geometric structure. The paintings are primarily studies in perception and light.[30] Williams has been likened to a “magician” because his paintings generate responses of surprise and wonder,[31] and a degree of mystery surrounds his technique.[32] The illusionary paintings are considered an original achievement, without obvious precedent in the history of art internationally.[33][34] They were first exhibited at Gow Langsford Gallery in March 1992, following Williams’ return to Auckland the previous year.
The illusionary paintings are representational in the manner of the Old Masters, and can thus be described accurately as trompe-l'œil works,[35] but they represent abstract forms and ambiguous phenomena. Williams has described them as “at once both totally abstract and as representational as you can get.”[36] According to curator Anna-Marie White, Williams is significant because “he created a new direction within abstract painting while simultaneously challenging the very nature of abstraction as a non-representational art form.”[37] Important examples of the illusionary paintings are Where Corals Lie (1994, Rutherford Collection) and Precept (Gold) (2005, private collection).
The illusionary paintings draw attention to perception itself, and encourage critical reflection on the relationship between what we see and what we believe we see.[38][39]
Digital mixed media paintings
[edit]
Williams began to experiment with digital techniques in 2009, leading him to revisit his Op style of the 1960s and 1970s.[40] He developed a new body of work combining digital processes with traditional painting techniques. Works such as Solar Flare (2011), Centrifuge (2013) and Paragon (2013) create optical vibrations that would have been difficult to achieve before the advent of digital technology.[41] Parallels have been drawn between Williams' attitude to digital technology and the spirit of excitement, hope and innovation that informed his original Op works in the 1960s.[42]
Sculpture
[edit]Williams has produced sculpture throughout his career, though it was only during his time in Whanganui that it came to the fore. In 2007 he began to devote more time to sculpture, and produced a series of works using tubular modules in bronze, stainless steel, aluminium and concrete, realising them on an increasingly large scale.[40]
Major exhibitions
[edit]- 2015 Façade, ARTIS Gallery, Auckland
- 2014 Lost for Words: Mervyn Williams: From Modernism to the Digital Age, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland
- 2008 Sleight of Hand, Suter Art Gallery, Nelson
- 2000 Opposites Attract, with Paul Dibble, Michael Carr Art Dealer, Sydney
- 1997 Ross Bleckner, Mark Francis, Mervyn Williams, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland
- 1996 Visa Gold Award, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
- 1994 Parallel Lines: Gordon Walters in Context, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
- 1992 Surface Tension, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
- 1990 Out of the Woods, Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui
- 1989 Points of Departure, Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui
- 1984 Gordon Walters and Mervyn Williams, Canterbury Society of Arts Gallery, Christchurch
- 1983 Aspects of Recent New Zealand Art: The Grid: Lattice and Network, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
- 1982 Seven Painters/The Eighties, Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui, touring exhibition
- 1980 Benson and Hedges Art Award Exhibition
- 1978 Auckland Painters Exhibition, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
- 1972 Biennale of Graphic Art, Paris
- 1970 NZ Pavilion, Expo 70, Japan
- 1967 Two-person exhibition with Pat Hanly, Wellington
- 1966 International Biennale of Graphic Art, Tokyo
Collections
[edit]- Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
- Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
- Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu
- Dunedin Public Art Gallery
- Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
- Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua, Whanganui
- Suter Art Gallery, Nelson
- Te Manawa Art Gallery, Palmerston North
- University of Auckland
Notes
[edit]- ^ Docking, Dunn & Hanfling 2012, p. 245.
- ^ Dunn 2010–2011, p. 45.
- ^ Hanfling 2014.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Taylor 2001, p. 944.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Hanfling 2014, p. 12.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Hanfling 2014, p. 13.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Hanfling 2014, p. 218.
- ^ Hanfling 2014, p. 14.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Hanfling 2014, p. 17.
- ^ Hanfling 2014, p. 141.
- ^ Daly-Peoples 2014.
- ^ Seitz 1965.
- ^ Dunn 2010–2011, p. 46.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Hanfling 2014, p. 18.
- ^ Hanfling 2014, p. 19.
- ^ Dunn 2003, p. 160.
- ^ Docking, Dunn & Hanfling 2012, p. 246.
- ^ Schulz 1982.
- ^ Lonie 1983.
- ^ Bogle 1983.
- ^ Parr 1983.
- ^ Williams 1986.
- ^ Hanfling 2014, p. 80.
- ^ Chin 1999, p. 2.
- ^ Hanfling 2014, p. 81.
- ^ Panoho 1989, p. 10.
- ^ Hanfling 2014, p. 82.
- ^ Panoho 1989, p. 18.
- ^ Chin 1999, p. 10.
- ^ Williams 1992.
- ^ Hanfling 2010.
- ^ Dalgleish 2015.
- ^ Dunn 2010–2011, pp. 47–48.
- ^ Caughey & Gow 2005, p. 46.
- ^ Dignan 2013.
- ^ Hanfling 2014, p. 144.
- ^ White 2010, p. 50.
- ^ Dunn 1996, p. 204.
- ^ Caughey & Gow 2005, p. 48.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Hanfling 2014, p. 329.
- ^ Hanfling 2014, p. 293.
- ^ Eggleton 2014–2015.
References
[edit]- Bogle, Andrew (1983). The grid: lattice and network. Auckland City Art Gallery.
- Caughey, Elizabeth; Gow, John (2005). Contemporary New Zealand Art 4. Auckland: David Bateman.
- Chin, David (1999). Mervyn Williams: shades of meaning. Auckland: Gow Langsford Gallery.
- Dalgleish, Jodie (1 April 2015). "The canvas that ripples". Landfall Review Online.
- Daly-Peoples, John (6 September 2014). "New book acknowledges leading abstract artist". National Business Review. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
- Dignan, James (14 November 2013). "Art seen". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
- Docking, Gil; Dunn, Michael; Hanfling, Edward (2012). 240 Years of New Zealand painting. Auckland: David Bateman.
- Dunn, Michael (1996). Contemporary painting in New Zealand. Sydney: Craftsman House.
- Данн, Майкл (2003). Новозеландская живопись: краткая история . Издательство Оклендского университета.
- Данн, Майкл (лето 2010–2011). «Оглядываясь назад: Мервин Уильямс в 70». Арт Новая Зеландия (136).
- Эгглтон, Дэвид (лето 2014–2015). «Afterburner: Мервин Уильямс: от модернизма до цифровой эры». Арт Новая Зеландия (152): 111.
- Ханфлинг, Эдвард (2010). Мервин Уильямс: двадцать лет нарисованной иллюзии . Окленд: Артис Галерея.
- Ханфлинг, Эдвард (2014). Мервин Уильямс: от модернизма до цифровой эпохи . Окленд: Рон Санг.
- Лони, Бриди (14 марта 1983 г.). «Семь художников - восьмидесятые». Otago Daily Times .
- Panoho, Rangihiroa (1989). Мервин Уильямс, Отъезжающие очки: выбор из работы художника Вангануи 1988 года в резиденции . Wanganui: Sarjeant Gallery.
- Парр, Крис (весна 1983). «Сетка: решетчатая и сеть» . Арт Новая Зеландия (28).
- Шульц, Дерек (1982). Семь художников / восьмидесятые . Wanganui: Sarjeant Gallery.
- Seitz, William C. (1965). Отзывчивый глаз . Нью -Йорк: Музей современного искусства.
- Тейлор, Алистер , изд. (2001). «Новая Зеландия Кто есть кто Aotearoa 2001». Новая Зеландия Кто есть кто, Аотеароа . Окленд: Алистер Тейлор Издатели. ISSN 1172-9813 .
- Уайт, Анна-Мари (2010). «Редакс: классический в современном новозеландском искусстве». Рука рука: порт Нельсон Сатер Биеннале . Нельсон: Художественная галерея Сутера Те Аратои О. Вакату.
- Уильямс, Мервин (18 сентября 1986 г.). Вечерний пост . Веллингтон.
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( помощь ) - Уильямс, Мервин (1992). Мервин Уильямс: Между тьмой и светом . Окленд: Gow Langsford Gallery.