Ian Scott 1945-2013

One engrossing development over the seventies was watching Ian Scott and Richard Killeen take on abstraction one-uppping each other exhibition by exhibition. There they were two well-known figurative painters going hard at the abstract as though it had just been discovered. It was always worth the visit to Peter McLeavey’s gallery to see what they had come up with. Then when they both turned up an exhibition of spray-canned abstracts - the paint often dribbling down to the bottom of the canvas - well what could you say? Scott went on to develop his lattice series and Killeen his cut outs but it was always a serious enterprise and Ian Scott was above all a very serious painter. 

Back then any talk of painting you had with Ian would always circle back to Gordon Walters. Scott (and Killeen too) was a huge admirer and many of his techniques, like the beautiful preparatory collages, the immaculate surfaces and even the regular studio hours were all straight out of the Walters’s handbook. But of course Scott was also very much his own man. Often out of step with the trends of the day he was always a courageous - if not sometimes a quixotic - figure. With many artists now feeding the market by looking over their shoulders it’s hard not to feel a twinge of nostalgic for Ian’s take-it-or-leave-it stance. It’s a sad business that he wasn’t given more time to take it.

Barbara Anderson 1926-2013

As tributes flow in for Barbara Anderson as an important New Zealand novelist, a fascinating aspect of her life has been forgotten. Barbara was also a much admired Cubist. 

In the 1990s she was one of the founding residents of both Cubewell House and later the National Mutual Building and was around during the development and presentation of most of the exhibitions shown in those two spaces. Cubism (be there or be square). 

Barbara was insanely curious, stylish and magnificently sure that younger people had as much to offer her as she had to offer in return. And so she did. She was admired and appreciated in equal parts by all her fellow Cubists. With her husband Neil they were for that moment an enlivening presence in the contemporary art world.  A big loss, but big memories too.

Image: Barbara and Neil Anderson on Willis Street just down from the Hamish McKay Gallery, 2003

Ralph Hotere 1931-2013

There has been a massive outpouring from the media in response to Ralph Hotere’s death on Sunday. This time the role of one of our important artists has been powerfully and publically acknowledged for his contribution to our culture’s history and development. The irony will not be lost on those who knew Hotere as one of a small band of artists who refused to take part in the media round. He always said that if you wanted answers you needed to find them in the work and he stuck to that philosophy. Hotere quotes are few and far between. 

We had our own experience of the Hotere silence when we asked for an interview back in the late 1970s. “I really have nothing to say to you,” he replied to our note, “but you are more than welcome to come and spend a day with me and my work.” So we did. Hotere was wry and funny and thoughtful never once suggesting that the two Wellington eager beavers might be keeping him away from important work. It was a memorable day and as it turned out not the last. Now that contemporary art by Maori artists is simply accepted as another key part of our culture, it is hard to remember how hard this acceptance was won and what a pivotal part Ralph Hotere played in the winning.

Images: Top left Otago Daily Times front page and right The Press inside pages. Middle, NZ Herald Front page and inners. Bottom Dominion Post front page and TVNZ report.

Don Binney 1940-2012

Don Binney died on Friday. His paintings of the mid-sixties with large native birds dominating New Zealand landscapes developed a great pictorial concept and rightly made him famous. Along with Robin White he helped establish a fresh way of looking at the New Zealand landscape that had for so long been dominated by Colin McCahon and Toss Woollaston. 

By the time we interviewed him for Contemporary New Zealand painters in the late 1970s, Binney was still trying to reconcile the public’s unwillingness to see him as anything other than the bird painter and this reluctance hurt. Don Binney was highly intelligent and strongly opinionated as well as articulate. It was a powerful mix that could be both stimulating and at times a challenge. The fact is he could just as easily have talked those birds down out of the trees. 

Image: Binney country, Bethell's Beach