ARTPOST #4

something new 
optimism for the future – a recent acquisition
Gordon Walters
Chrysanthemum  1944

Building an art collection sometimes requires creative thinking. As is the case in many public institutions, the collection here at Dunedin Public Art Gallery continues to grow through a combination of purchases, donations and bequests. Sometimes, however, bold new ways of thinking are needed to help achieve some of our more ambitious collecting goals.  In 2015, Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū embarked on an innovative collecting project, to work in partnership to build a shared collection of benchmark works owned by both galleries and the communities they serve.  It was this programme that, in 2018, saw the joint acquisition of the remarkable painting Chrysanthemum (1944) by Gordon Walters.
 
Most recognised for his hard-edged geometric abstraction inspired by kōwhaiwhai, Chrysanthemum is one of the earliest existing paintings by Walters, showing his first steps towards abstraction.  It was among the artist’s favourite works, and a painting he kept in his personal collection and returned to when he felt the need to recharge.  In 1974 he wrote of this work ‘The sense of freedom and pleasure I felt in painting the picture is still with me . . . I haven’t sold it; I keep it stacked out of sight and, perhaps once or twice a year, take it out and look at it.’[1] Recognising the art historical importance of Chrysanthemum, both Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū were thrilled to acquire this painting for the benefit of future generations.

[GORDON WALTERS Chrysanthemum 1944, alkyd on cardboard. Collections of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, with funding from the Dunedin City Council and Bateman Bequest, and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. Jointly purchased 2018.]

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something borrowed 
borrowed happiness — from Surrealism
Surrealist Fashion – HATS!

Surrealist artist Elsa Schiaparelli, famous for her 'shoe hat', wrote in her book Shocking Life: “Once or twice I had thought that instead of painting or sculpture … I could invent dresses or costumes. Dress designing, incidentally, is to me not a profession but an art.”

This week we look at how to think outside the square, and design a hat that references Surrealism, an art movement from around the 1930s, which is still, today, referenced by high fashion milliners such as Philip Treacy and Steven Jones. Even prior to this period - in the 1780s - women's hair (or the wig) was fashionably tall, and included various decorative elements worn on special occasions that could easily fit into the genre of Surrealism (such as an image of a miniature sailing ship, including masts and sails perching atop the wig worn by a fashionable woman, the curls of the wig perhaps depicting waves!).

You will need a willingness to be bold and have fun making your hat.

Firstly you may find it easier if you have a hat of some sort at home that you can experiment on. Or, too, you may want to create something from scratch, such as a bubble-wrap hair decoration. Here are suggestions for materials you may have at hand:

• Strips of plain paper – if you use the blunt side of scissors to run down these strips, they will curl up – or you can use the strips as a plain decorative item
• Make a rudimentary hat by cutting a piece of card about 250mm square, then lay a plate on the card and cut round it to make a circle. Make a cut from one edge to the centre of the circle, and fold one side under and one side over to make a hat with a pointed top. Staple or glue the two under and over pieces to each other at a point where the hat fits your head. Decorate
• Other materials: Xmas ribbon, baking foil, crepe paper, wool, toilet paper roll (if you dampen one end of the toilet paper it will turn into a 'flower'), an old mesh bag, leaves, feather duster, fruit, bubble-wrap, a peaked cap with costume jewellery dangles, cotton buds, gloves (especially white), coloured sox, pipe cleaners and anything in the children's art box that may work (ask first!)
• glue, staples, pins, safety pins, needle and thread, scissors
• Check out some of the Mod 1960s fashions in the link below influenced by astronauts and outer space – they are ideas that would be considered 'way out'. 

These general resources below will give you some inspiring ideas:

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O183849/shoe-hat-hat-elsa-schiaparelli/

https://thehistoryofthehairsworld.com/hair_18th_century.html

https://www.philiptreacy.co.uk/en

http://www.stephenjonesmillinery.com

https://flashbak.com/1960s-space-age-fashion-a-retrospective-10963/

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