OBE Gordon H. Brown | |
|---|---|
 Gordon Brown in his Waiheke library, 2012 | |
| Born | 1931 |
| Occupation | Art historian and art gallery director |
| Subject | Contemporary New Zealand art, Colin McCahon |
| Notable works | Introduction to New Zealand Painting (with Hamish Keith) |
| Notable awards | 2002 Honorary Doctorate, Victoria University of Wellington |
Gordon Harold Brown (born 1931) is a New Zealand art historian, curator, and artist.
Brown was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1931. He attended Wellington Technical College and in 1956 graduated in Fine Arts from the Canterbury School of Art. In 1960 he trained as a librarian at the National Library School in Wellington and went on to work in the Alexander Turnbull Library. Brown moved to Auckland in 1964 and was initially Librarian-in-charge at the Elam School of Fine Arts library. The following year he took up a position at the Auckland Art Gallery Research Library. During this time Brown also kept up his art practice as a painter and photographer. [1]
Brown developed an early interest in the work of Colin McCahon and was reviewing his work in the Auckland Star as early as 1965. [2] He went on to write more than 30 reviews and essays devoted to the artist along with two books Towards the Promised Land: On the Life and Art of Colin McCahon [3] and his seminal work Colin McCahon: Artist published in 1984. [4] The two men were close friends having first met in 1952 [5] and in 1968 they both exhibited portraits in the exhibition Face to Face at Kees Hos’s New Vision Gallery in Auckland. [6] As McCahon put it, “...he painted me and I painted him.” [7]
In 1969 An Introduction to New Zealand Painting 1839-1967 [8] was published, co-written by Brown and Hamish Keith. This first attempt to write a history of New Zealand art was used as a standard text and revised and enlarged as Introduction to New Zealand Painting 1839-1980 [9] in 1982. The new edition sparked a heated argument spearheaded by art historian Dr. Francis Pound in his book Frames on the Land. [10] Pound decried what he saw as Brown and Keith’s provincial view of New Zealand art in contrast to what he considered the more relevant contemporary views held by Internationalist artists. [11]
In 1970 Brown was appointed director at the Waikato Art Gallery (now the Waikato Museum of Art and History) in Hamilton. He left after a year and moved to Dunedin working as the Curator of Pictures at the Hocken Library. There he curated New Zealand painting 1900-1920 Traditions and Departures, the first of three important touring exhibitions, with accompanying catalogues, that traced New Zealand’s art history from 1920 to 1960. [12]
In 1974, Brown was appointed the first professional director of the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui. [13] During his three years in the role Brown introduced a number of important contemporary works into the collection including works by Don Driver, [14] Gordon Walters, [15] Allen Maddox, [16] Philip Clairmont [17] and McCahon. [18] Brown left the Sarjeant Gallery to become a free-lance writer in 1977 citing council interference with the art gallery’s professional standards and procedures as the reason. [19]
Brown has remained a practising artist since leaving art school. In the sixties his paintings were selected for a number of group shows at the Auckland Art Gallery and he was invited to exhibit in Christchurch with TheGroup in 1962 [20] and 1965. [21]
In 2007 an exhibition of Brown’s photographs taken during a trip to America in 1974 was exhibited at the Gus Fisher Gallery in Auckland titled Hotel North America. [22] More recently there has been renewed interest in Brown’s photography. [23]
In 1980 Brown was awarded the OBE for services to art history [24] and in 2002 an Honorary Doctorate from Victoria University of Wellington. The university also inaugurated the Gordon H Brown lecture series to ‘further art historical scholarship in New Zealand’ in the same year. [25]
Colin John McCahon was a prominent New Zealand artist whose work over 45 years consisted of various styles, including landscape, figuration, abstraction, and the overlay of painted text. Along with Toss Woollaston and Rita Angus, McCahon is credited with introducing modernism to New Zealand in the mid-20th century. He is regarded as New Zealand's most important modern artist, particularly in his landscape work.
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions.
The Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui at Pukenamu, Queen's Park Whanganui is currently closed for redevelopment. The temporary premises at Sarjeant on the Quay, 38 Taupo Quay currently house the Sarjeant Collection, and all exhibitions and events. The Sarjeant Gallery is a regional art museum with a collection of international and New Zealand art.
Sir Mountford Tosswill "Toss" Woollaston was a New Zealand artist. He is regarded as one of the most important New Zealand painters of the 20th century.
Gretchen Albrecht is a New Zealand painter and sculptor.
Hamish Henry Cordy Keith is a New Zealand writer, art curator, arts consultant and social commentator.
William Alexander Sutton was a New Zealand portrait and landscape artist.
Philip Anthony Clairmont (1949–1984) was a New Zealand painter.
Doris More Lusk was a New Zealand painter, potter, art teacher, and university lecturer. In 1990 she was posthumously awarded the Governor General Art Award in recognition of her artistic career and contributions.
Rodney Eric Kennedy was a New Zealand artist, art critic, pacifist and drama tutor. He was born in Dunedin.
Ian Christopher Scott was a New Zealand painter. His work was significant for pursuing an international scope and vision within a local context previously dominated by regionalist and national concerns. Over the course of his career he consistently sought to push his work towards new possibilities for painting, in the process moving between abstraction and representation, and using controversial themes and approaches, while maintaining a highly personal and recognisable style. His work spans a wide range of concerns including the New Zealand landscape, popular imagery, appropriation and art historical references. Scott's paintings are distinctive for their intensity of colour and light. His approach to painting is aligned with the modernist tradition, responding to the formal standards set by the American painters Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland and Jules Olitski.
Joanna Margaret Paul was a New Zealand visual artist, poet and film-maker.
Douglas Kerr MacDiarmid was a New Zealand expatriate painter, known for his diversity and exceptional use of colour, and involved with key movements in twentieth-century art. He lived in Paris, France, for most of his career.
Pauline Adele Thompson was a New Zealand painter. Her style can be described as romantic-realist. She exhibited with the Auckland Society of Arts and in the New Women Artists exhibition at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in 1984.
Dr Francis Pound was a New Zealand art historian, curator and writer.
Luise Fong is a Malaysian-born New Zealand artist.
Selwyn Peter Webb was a New Zealand art dealer and gallery director. He was a supporter and promoter of art, and particularly contemporary New Zealand art, for over sixty years. Webb's work spanned public art museums, publishing and the founding of the Peter Webb Galleries and Webb's auction house.
Ten Big Paintings was a 1971 art exhibition developed by the Auckland City Art Gallery which toured throughout New Zealand.
Northland Panels is an eight-part landscape painted by the New Zealand artist Colin McCahon in November 1958 shortly after his first and only trip to the United States.
Ronald Norris O'Reilly was a librarian who promoted and exhibited contemporary New Zealand art. He served as Christchurch city librarian from 1951 to 1968, and director of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery from 1975 to 1979.