Since 1996, the work of the Purbeck Film Festival has grown year on year, in terms of venues and audience numbers, and continues to go from strength to strength.
Groundbreakers considers the early careers of two of Ōtepoti’s most significant artists, Grace Joel and Frances Hodgkins, who were establishing their artistic practices in the city in the 1890s.
The exhibition, Frances Hodgkins: People, curated by Dr. Pamela Gerrish Nunn explores works by Hodgkins that depicted people; from portraits of friends to busy market scenes.
New Zealand Portrait Gallery
Frances Hodgkins: People
— 16 November 2017 — 14 February 2018
— Admission Free
New Zealand Portrait Gallery - Main Gallery
— 18 November 2017
— 12.30 — 1.30pm
— Admission Free
Grayson Perry, Mad Kid’s Bedroom Wall Pot
A vase by Grayson Perry was the highlight of a new display at Portsmouth Museum covering 200 years of design.
It was the first time that work by the well-known potter, who graduated from Portsmouth Polytechnic in 1982, had been on show at the museum.
The exhibition, called Rediscovery: the Decorative Arts in Portsmouth, also featured works from the museum's own collection, including some rarely on view or never shown in public before. It covered design in ceramics, furniture, textiles, decorative tiles, embroidery, sculpture, illustrations, glass and art, including some of the finest examples in Britain.
Significant periods in British design were represented, including the Gothic Revival, the Arts and Crafts movement, the Bloomsbury Group and studio pottery. Artists, designers and craft-makers featured include Vanessa Bell, Dora Carrington, Hans Coper, William De Morgan, Christopher Dresser, Duncan Grant, Frances Hodgkins, Owen Jones, Bernard Leach, Wyndham Lewis, AWN Pugin and Lucie Rie. Influential British manufacturers also feature, including Maw and Co, Martin Brothers, Minton, Pilkington, Royal Doulton and Wedgwood.
Cllr Linda Symes, Portsmouth City Council's Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport, said: "This is a very impressive collection, and it will be wonderful to see these fine objects all in one place. And of course, it's great to have a work by Grayson Perry, who did his fine art degree in the city."
The Grayson Perry vase, Mad Kid’s Bedroom Wall Pot, was on loan from the Crafts Council. The rest of the items will be on permanent display." — Portsmouth News
Portsmouth Museum: Decorative Arts Gallery
Rediscovery: the Decorative Arts in Portsmouth
— On display from 21 October 2017
— Admission Free
Frances Hodgkins San Remo Market, 1902
Watercolour • Private Collection
An Emerging Talent: Early Works by Frances Hodgkins
opened at Mahara Gallery on Saturday 8 April at 5pm. Guest curator Victoria Robson (Curator of European Art at Te Papa) and Les Holborow (Chairman of the Mahara Gallery Trust) was present.
To celebrate Hodgkins' birthday on Friday 28 April, Victoria Robson gave a talk in the gallery at 11am.
An Emerging Talent: Early Works by Frances Hodgkins
9 April — 4 June
— Opening Saturday 8 April at 5pm
— Curator's Talk Friday 28 April at 11am
In 1969 documentary-maker & producer Alwyn Owen commissioned an audio documentary in celebration of Frances Hodgkins' centenary. The documentary was produced by June Opie, who acted as questioner, and featured interviews with Hodgkins' friends and fellow artists, including Elsie Barling, Jane Saunders, Cedric Morris, Geoffrey Gorer & Ben Nicholson.
The audio below is an extract from the recording, featuring the recollections of sculptors Dame Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. Hear them remember her with extraordinary vividness and affection.
Mary Kisler is Senior Curator, Mackelvie Collection, International Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, caring for a collection that begins in the 13th century and ends mid-20th century. Kisler is a well respected art historian with an enviable knowledge of and a fervent passion for Frances Hodgkins.
Art with Mary Kisler is a semi-regular spot on Radio New Zealand's Saturday programme in which Kisler discusses a theme or subject within the realms of art. Past topics include 'The Egg in Art', Le Corbusier, Californian design, museum extensions and the reopening of the Christchurch Art Gallery.
In June 2015 Kisler discussed Hodgkins' journey across Europe and how the ever-changing landscapes she encountered influenced and directed her style. Listen below.
Last weekend we paid a visit to the Auckland Art Gallery to view Space to Dream: Recent Art From South America - which we highly recommend. Among the Gallery's other intriguing collections is an exhibition dedicated to the "forgotten" still-lifes of Frances Hodgkins.
The exhibition includes oils, watercolours, gouaches and drawings, predominantly of flowers and pottery. Also on display are several photographs of the artist as well as paints and painting utensils. A point of interest is the "texture wall" which allows you to touch a range of surfaces which demonstrate the different techniques, treatments and finishes Hodgkins applied to her paintings.
The exhibition runs until the end of the month so do not miss your chance to view this excellent collection.
Auckland Art Gallery | Frances Hodgkins: Forgotten Still Life | Closes Sunday 31 July 2016
Learn about the working practices of one of New Zealand's most influential artists, Frances Hodgkins, in this revealing exhibition focusing on her unique and adept approach to still-life painting.
Oil on canvas, 60.9 x 50.8 cm
At the exhibition's centre is 'Still Life: Anemones and Hyacinths c1925', which was last shown in 1959 and has recently undergone extensive restoration. Read more about this conservation project in the New Zealand Herald.
Frances Hodgkins, born in 1969 in Dunedin, gained considerable fame in Britain where she settled in 1913. Her work is in the Tate and other major galleries; public galleries here now have considerable collections although as late as 1949 the Art Gallery in Christchurch once refused a gift of a painting because it was too "modern".
The excellent examples of her work gathered in Frances Hodgkins: A Singular Artist at the Jonathan Grant Galleries chart her progress to achieve the originality, vigour and charm that brought her work to prominence overseas.
The earliest painting in the show, Maori Girl in Blue (1899), is a sympathetic watercolour of a thoughtful subject. It is painted wet on wet, giving an effect of immediacy, reinforcing the excellent draughtsmanship of the characterisation.
A jump to 1933 shows the effect of her time spent in Europe. Her contact with Post-Impressionist French painting is apparent in Ibiza. It owes a lot to Dufy in its transparency and spontaneity. She is still using watercolour and the tones are richly blended into unity. not even the sails of a windmill are allowed to break the lively feeling of the expression of a delighted emotional response to the scene.
Quite late in life she turned to oil paint and to gouache, where watercolour is thickened with white. This strengthened her forms and the effect can be seen in River Tone, Somerset (1939) and the exceptionally rich Welsh Emblem (1942). They help complete an interesting survey.
- TJ McNamara, 'From 'too mod' to revered', Weekend Herald. Saturday, July 9, 2016.
Photos courtesy of | Artsdiary
Thanks to all who came along to celebrate the opening of Frances Hodgkins: A Singular Artist.
Do not miss your chance to view these remarkable works. The exhibition runs until Sunday 24 July. We look forward to seeing you in the Gallery!
Proposed Redevelopment | Parsonson Architects and Tennent + Brown.
‘Frances Hodgkins in her studio, Bowen St, Wellington (vintage albumen print) c 1905.'
Courtesy & copyright of the Field Collection Trust 2016.
A facility combining the Waikanae Public Library and Mahara Gallery is a step closer to becoming reality.
A renewed agreement between the Kapiti Coast District Council, the Mahara Gallery Trust and the Field Collection Trust was signed in the full council meeting last Thursday. The project aims to deliver an integrated facility, and a “distinctive, iconic building”, in Waikanae. The new facility would provide a permanent home for the Field Collection which includes paintings by New Zealand-born artist Frances Hodgkins, her family and associates.
"An upgraded Mahara Gallery would be the "jewel in the crown" of the Council's plans for Waikanae to become a cultural precinct within the Kapiti District. The project has been ranked by the Council as one of its most significant current projects." - The Mahara Gallery Trust Board
Frances Hodgkins, 'A Fortune Teller,' 1896.
Courtesy & copyright of the Field Collection Trust, 2016.
"The Field Collection is a collection of 44 works, 24 of them by Frances Hodgkins (1869-1947), considered New Zealand’s most significant expatriate artist. It is the largest collection of Hodgkins' work outside Te Papa and city collections in Dunedin, Auckland, and Christchurch.
The Kapiti connection is the result of Frances’ sister Isabel marrying local land-owner, businessman and MP, William Field.
The collection has been gifted to Mahara Gallery, provided it can provide the infrastructure needed to store and display such an important collection of art works.
Curator and former NZ Portrait Gallery Director Avenal McKinnon says of the Field Collection:
Within this core of twenty-four works is found the essential early Frances Hodgkins from which her later work would spring. … As a collection these paintings should never be underestimated for what they reveal to us about the nature of her beginnings as an artist, her complex relationship with her family – especially her sister Isabel, and the artistic taste of New Zealand during her lifetime."
- Extract from Mahara Gallery. 'Creating a District Art Gallery for the Kapiti Coast.'
Frances Hodgkins: A Singular Artist opens this Thursday 30 June, 5.30 - 7.30 pm, at Jonathan Grant Gallery. You can find us at 280 Parnell Road, Parnell, Auckland, NZ.
To view exhibition works head over to our Paintings page. Use the 'Enquire' forms, found after the essay on your painting of interest, to make a formal enquiry.
If you wish to contact us directly, call us on +64 9 308 9125.
Our latest exhibition catalogue - Frances Hodgkins: A Singular Artist - is now available for purchase. Also available are two of our previous Frances Hodgkins exhibition catalogues, The Expatriate Years (2012) & Watercolours from Europe (2008).
Frances Hodgkins: A Singular Artist opens Thursday 30 June 2016. Visit our website for more details.
