A home for art and artists

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1910s, 1920s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, art, arts fellows, benefactors, library, physical education

Curator Donald Jamieson in the Hocken pictures stack, 1965. Photograph courtesy of the Hocken Collections, Box-240-004, S16-102b.

Otago does not, like some universities, have a fine arts programme; the highly-regarded Dunedin School of Art, established in 1870, is part of Otago Polytechnic. But the university has not neglected art: it has an art history programme, a prestigious fellowship for artists and one of New Zealand’s finest art collections.

That collection began when Thomas Morland Hocken donated his large collection of publications, archives, maps, photographs and paintings to the University of Otago, to be held in trust for the people of New Zealand. The deed of trust was signed in 1907, and in 1910 – shortly before Hocken’s death – the Hocken Library opened in a new wing of the Otago Museum (which was then run by the university). Hocken’s donation included over 400 pictures. Although his wife Bessie Hocken was a painter and photographer, he was not really interested in art for its aesthetics, but for the evidence it provided for research into his true passion, New Zealand history. The artworks he donated ranged from landscapes to political cartoons to paintings of Māori people and activities, and many included keys created by the Hockens to identify people and topographical features. Over the next few decades the library purchased further artworks and others were donated; the first published catalogue of the pictorial collection, dated 1948, included hundreds more works. Like the original collection, additions were mostly acquired for their historical interest, but they included many fine drawings and paintings. A great example is John Buchanan’s 1863 painting of Milford Sound. Linda Tyler, formerly pictorial curator at the Hocken, described this 1920s acquisition as ‘one of the icons of New Zealand art’; she recently discussed it on radio as her favourite New Zealand painting.

From the 1950s the Hocken pictorial collection took a new direction thanks to the influence – and generosity – of some noted art experts and collectors. Poet and editor Charles Brasch headed a new Hocken pictures subcommittee and – not without some opposition – shifted the acquisitions focus from history to aesthetics, and to include modern works. Brasch’s friend Rodney Kennedy made the first of many significant gifts to the Hocken in 1956 with 23 drawings by Colin McCahon. Kennedy attended the Dunedin School of Art in the 1920s and had many artist friends and a fine collection of New Zealand artworks; he was well-known around Otago as a long-serving drama tutor for the university extension department. Brasch, too, began gifting paintings in the late 1950s; both men gave further significant artworks during their lifetimes and by bequest. The Hocken’s important collection of McCahon’s works started with Kennedy and Brasch, but continued with gifts directly from McCahon and a bequest from his parents. Charlton Edgar, who taught at the Dunedin School of Art in the 1930s, gave nearly 400 works to the Hocken in 1961. This gift – known as the Mona Edgar collection in honour of his wife – ‘would update the Hocken with thirty years worth of modern New Zealand art’, wrote Tyler; it ‘changed the historical orientation of the collection irrevocably’. In subsequent decades the Hocken continued to purchase and receive generous donations of New Zealand artworks both modern and historical; by 2007 it held some 14,000 pictures. Those artworks have appeared in many exhibitions (in Dunedin and beyond) and publications and some can now be viewed digitally on the Otago University Research Heritage website. Dr Hocken little knew what he was starting when he gifted those 400 or so works depicting the history of New Zealand to the people of this country!

From 1966 the Hocken benefited from the existence of the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship, named in honour of one of New Zealand’s greatest artists. Modelled on the university’s Robert Burns Fellowship for writers, which had commenced in 1959, the new fellowship offered artists the opportunity to live in Dunedin for a year with a secure income and studio space provided; they had complete freedom of expression to work on projects of their choice. Anonymous ‘friends of the university’ made a large donation which endowed the fellowship, designed to aid and encourage painters and sculptors and foster interest in the arts at the university. The university was becoming an important patron of the arts, with fellowships for composers and dancers and children’s writers to follow later. Such fellowships were few and far between in New Zealand, so they carried considerable prestige.

Michael Illingworth, photographed in his studio by Max Oettli, 1968. Illingworth was the first Frances Hodgkins Fellow in 1966. Image courtesy of the Hocken Collections, P2011-027, S16-102c. Reproduced with the kind permission of Max Oettli and Dene Illingworth.

The rules stated that potential fellows needed to have ‘executed sufficient work’ to demonstrate talent as a painter or sculptor, and shown that they were ‘a serious artist’ who would be ‘diligent’ in developing their talent and would benefit from the fellowship. There was no requirement for applicants to have any formal education in fine arts, ensuring ‘mavericks’ would not be cut out. The university – or, at least, its selection committee – from the beginning showed a willingness to be bold and support innovative and sometimes controversial artists. The first Frances Hodgkins Fellow, Michael Illingworth, made the news a year earlier when his painting As Adam and Eve, on show at Auckland’s Barry Lett Galleries, attracted an obscenity complaint to the police. That incident cemented the painter’s frustration with the conservatism of middle-class New Zealand. A friend, the writer Kevin Ireland, later described Illingworth as ‘a person with a blunderbuss conversation and philosophy – he sprayed out and hit everything yet his art was so worked and jewel-like and carefully done’. The fellowship got off to rather an unfortunate start when Illingworth left halfway through his 1966 tenure, claiming he couldn’t work in the studio provided. The second Frances Hodgkins Fellow, sculptor Tanya Ashken, found Dunedin more congenial. Among the friends she made was Philip Smithells, director of the physical education school; she joined the students in his gymnastic classes and her observations of their movements and poses contributed to her new sculpture. Following her fellowship there was an exhibition of her work in the foyer of the museum (where the Hocken was still located).

Finding a suitable space for the fellows proved a long-term challenge. In 1975 the Cumberland St house where fellow John Parker had his studio was demolished partway through his term and he moved into an alternative in Leith St. In 1978 fellow Grahame Sydney declared the latest space, near the Leith, ‘a completely satisfactory studio’, but that one didn’t last either. The 2008 fellow, painter Heather Straka, noted that the then studio in Union Street West had good light and hours could pass without her realising: ‘Before I know it, it is 1am and I am still working’. For the past few years the studio has been in a prefab near the Albany Street music studio. Another challenge was funding. Although the original anonymous gift was intended to endow the fellowship permanently, by the late 1970s inflation had eroded the value of its income, along with those of the Burns and Mozart fellowships. The university held a successful appeal to boost fellowship funds, attracting donations from individuals and businesses, along with a government grant. In 1986 the university decided to withhold the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship for a year to build up its capital, but donations from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council and M.W. James Trust meant it could be offered for a shorter term of 6 months. Since then, the fellowship has been awarded every year.

The list of former Frances Hodgkins Fellows is a veritable who’s who of the New Zealand art world. Many of the artists held the fellowship fairly early or mid-career and went on to great acclaim, such as Ralph Hotere (1969), Marilynn Webb (1974), Jeffrey Harris (1977), Gretchen Albrecht (1981), Fiona Pardington (1996 and 1997), Shane Cotton (1998) and Seraphine Pick (1999). ‘It’s flattering to be in such good company’, said Heather Straka during her tenure. ‘Everyone who has come through this residency has been of quite good note and has produced great work while on the residency’. Freedom from financial worry – for a year, at least – led to the production of many fine works of art: John Ward Knox, the 2015 fellow, described it as ‘a windfall of time and space and freedom’ to create. The Hocken showcased the work of each fellow through an exhibition hosted soon after their tenure, and acquired some of those works for its collection.

If you’re in Dunedin, take the opportunity to see some of the highlights of the Hocken at its current exhibition (on until 22 October). And keep an eye out for the exhibition to be held later this year at the Hocken Collections and Dunedin Public Art Gallery to mark 50 years of the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship. If you’re further away, you can still enjoy many of the Hocken’s art treasures in digital format – happy viewing!

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Covering capping books

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1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, art, graduation

Rocket science and rock and roll featured on the 1957 cover, drawn by Harold Coop. Image courtesy of Harold Coop.

“What a year to be illustrating! Rocket science was just being taken seriously, and rock and roll had arrived.” So recalls Harold Coop, who created the cover of the 1957 Capping Book. This annual publication started out in 1926 and soon became an important feature of capping. It included a list of the graduates and the programme of the capping show, but the main appeal lay in the rest of its contents, which consisted of cartoons, comic verse and various satirical articles, running to a total of 64 pages. There were also advertisements for many local firms, with ads especially created in a suitably comic tone. Students sold copies to the public as a fundraiser and it became a very popular publication, with a print run in the tens of thousand in the 1960s.

A good cover was of course critical to sales, and the Capping Book editors clearly went to considerable trouble to ensure they had something colourful, witty and topical to help sales. Often they employed a commercial artist for the job. For instance, the 1929 cover, featuring a stylish group of young men and women perusing the Capping Book, was by Peter McIntyre. McIntyre, then still in his teens, would become a very well-known New Zealand artist; he studied briefly at the University of Otago in the 1930s. Some 1930s covers were drawn by Russell Clark, then employed as an illustrator for Dunedin publishing firm McIndoe, and later also a respected sculptor. Marguerite Cotton, who drew the 1939 cover of a colourful Michael Joseph Savage clutching a “social security” diploma, boasted a Diploma of Fine Arts. Political leaders – national and international – often featured on covers of the late 1930s and early 1940s; earlier and later covers were more likely to highlight student life.

On John Hinds’s 1935 cover, the obligatory graduation cap appears on a skull. From the blogger’s collection.

But not all Capping Book covers were drawn by professionals: all three featured on this post were the work of Otago medical students. Harold Coop, who drew the 1957 cover, graduated in medicine in 1958. He got the illustrating job because others were impressed with the cover he had drawn previously for the medical student publication, Digest. During a long medical career, specialising in ophthalmology, he continued his interest in art; his largest public work is an illuminated entrance mural at the Auckland School of Medicine. From an earlier generation of medical students come some of the 1930s covers. John Hinds’s health science connection is evident in his choice of a skull as subject. He graduated from Otago in 1937, then became a specialist chest physician. Denis Rogers, who graduated in 1939, drew the 1937 cover; he later became well known as mayor of Hamilton. Of course, it wasn’t only medical students who could draw: the 1946 and 1947 covers were both by Pam Sinclair, an Otago zoology student.

The 1937 cover, by Denis Rogers, is most notable for its distinctive art deco-style font. From the blogger’s collection.

In the early 1980s the Capping Book and its cover became part of a major dispute, reflecting the battle between conservative and radical factions on campus. Some students (and others) were unhappy with the racist and sexist humour which had pervaded the publication for many years …. but that’s a story for another time.

The McCahon hoax

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1960s, art, chemistry, pranks

The three copies of McCahon’s painting on display in the Otago student union. From the front page of the Evening Star, 26 October 1961.

Two Otago graduates have just owned up, after more than fifty years, to a prank involving a Colin McCahon painting. McCahon is hailed as perhaps New Zealand’s greatest painter; his works attract premium prices and are held in major international collections. Among the McCahon oils held by the Fletcher Trust Collection, Auckland, is Painting 1958, notable for “its large dark and light forms and the sense of gaps or spaces between”.  This uncompromisingly abstract work is not to everybody’s taste, and when it first came to public attention in 1960 it attracted much derision from  those who did not appreciate “non-representational” painting.

The painting was already notorious when it went on display in the University of Otago student union cafeteria in 1961. In 1960 it was a joint winner of the inaugural Hay’s Art Competition, sponsored by Hay’s Department Store in Christchurch. This was an important event for artists, as New Zealand then had few prizes or scholarships for art, and the existing Kelliher Prize was limited to realist landscapes. As the judges of the Hay’s prize could not reach agreement, they awarded the competition jointly to McCahon and two others. Hay’s, which now owned the painting, offered in 1961 to gift it to Christchurch’s Robert McDougall Art Gallery, but city councillors rejected it, as well as the two other prizewinners, as unfit for exhibition. Since nobody seemed willing to display the painting in Christchurch, the Otago student union was offered as a venue by the OUSA ladies’ vice-president, Jocelyn Wood (now better known as Emeritus Professor Jocelyn Harris of Otago’s Department of English).

The painting prompted a lot of discussion at Otago, not least in the pages of Critic. Ian Devereux and Jimmy Boyne, then masters students in chemistry, devised a scheme which would demonstrate very clearly the opinion of many students on abstract art. Thinking along the lines “any child could paint that,” they made three copies of the painting (retitled “Light on in the flat downstairs” by one wit). This was a top secret operation, carried out at night in one of the chemistry labs. They had to keep returning to the union to check the original, then rush back to their own work. They discovered that oil paints were too expensive for impecunious students, and completed the work using Dulux white house paint and Fletcher’s bitumastic roof sealer, painting over plaster of paris to give the required texture. They thought their scheme was foiled when one of the chemistry lecturers, Arthur Williamson, caught them at their painting one night, but Williamson appreciated the prank, and even offered a donation towards materials.

When Devereux and Boyne, in the dead of night, finally placed their paintings next to the original, they were disappointed at how different they appeared – the sheen of McCahon’s work made it stand out from the others. So they carefully wrapped the original and hid it in a cleaner’s cupboard. They hung their three copies on the union cafeteria wall, together with a notice inviting viewers to pick out which was the original. The cafeteria was abuzz with discussion of the paintings over the next couple of days. Boyne and Devereux could hardly contain their laughter over some of the comments they overheard: one professor commented “I can tell it’s the one on the right because of the power of the brushwork.” A feature story on the prank appeared in the Evening Star newspaper: the pranksters were particularly amused that the reporter assumed they must have been art students, although he or she did manage to detect that the true original had been hidden. The story also made it much further afield, with one of Devereux’s extended family reading about it in Portsmouth, England.

After a couple of anxious nights spent worrying about the safety of McCahon’s original painting, Boyne and Devereux returned it to display. The three copies found homes, although they were not all appreciative. Devereux kept one copy for himself, but it was irreparably damaged in transit during a move to the North Island. They gave one copy to one of their chemistry classmates, Claire Parton, as a wedding gift; she immediately passed it on to her father, Prof Hugh Parton, head of the Department of Chemistry. For many years this copy hung in the departmental library as an exemplar of the ingenuity of chemistry students. The third copy went to Arthur Williamson, who kept it in the garage as his wife refused to have it in the house. Meanwhile, the original passed through the ownership of various well-known businesses, ending up with the Chase Corporation. An employee there rescued it from being used as packaging and it was purchased by the Fletcher Trust at auction in 1987.

McCahon was, unsurprisingly, not impressed with the prank. His lawyer wrote a letter to the OUSA threatening legal action, but as they had no idea who had carried out the prank nothing could be done. Other than the perpetrators and a couple of the chemistry staff, until now nobody has known the identity of the copyists. James Boyne went on to study medicine and has recently retired as a GP in Milton. Ian Devereux worked for the DSIR, completed a PhD at Victoria University of Wellington and then set up a very successful business, Rocklabs, which manufactured crushing and sampling equipment used by mining and geology businesses all over the world. They have been reminiscing recently over their Otago student days and decided to go public about their 1961 exploits. I am most grateful to them for sharing their story!