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Going against the flow of the art tide - 29 Jun 2010

Going against the flow of the art tide

Two exhibitions open at Tauranga Art Gallery on 3 July that showcase New Zealand artists who have stepped outside the constraints of the New Zealand art canon of the times, and pursued their own style.

Bohemians of the Brush: Pumpkin Cottage Impressionists opens onSaturday 3 July, and demonstrates the importance of a small rustic cottage at Silverstream, near Wellington, to New Zealand’s first Impressionist painters.

The exhibition tells thestory of painter James Nairn and his colleagues, who went against the mainstream and developed an indigenous, Impressionist style of painting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The exhibition features paintings, historic objects, a DVD and catalogue written by exhibition curator and art historian, Jane Vial, which relates how the group of artists developed a unique approach to Impressionism and the Bohemian lifestyle - with Pumpkin Cottage as their rural haven.

The Pumpkin Cottage paintings were donated to the Expressions Trust for the people of Upper Hutt in 2009, by collectors Ernest and Shirley Cosgrove, who collected them over a period of 30 years. “I recognized the Pumpkin Cottage painters as a group that did groundbreaking work that changed the face of New Zealand art. They weren’t being attended to and I didn’t want them lost,” says Ernest of his collection.

The exhibition include work by James Nairn, Mabel Hill, John Baillie, H.M. Gore, Maurice Crompton-Smith and Mary Elizabeth Richardson Tripe. Impressionists from Christchurch and Dunedin, including Alfred Walsh, W.M. Gibb, John Madden, Frances Hodgkins and Girolamo Nerli were also inspired by the Pumpkin Cottage artists and movement. The exhibition runs until 5 September.

Also opening on 3 July is a collection of work by Edward Bullmore. Edward Bullmore: Life Studiesis a suite of life studies painted by Bullmore during his time in London, in the 1960s.

The works are from the Tauranga Art Gallery Collection and Jacqueline Bullmore’s private collection, and have been chosen for the exhibition by Penelope Jackson and Bullmore’s daughter, Marianna.

Edward Bullmore: Life Studies can be viewed at the Gallery until 22 August.