The Critic's Part Wystan Curnow Art Writings 1971–2013

by Curnow, Wystan; Leonard, Robert; Barton, Christina

• ISBN13: 9780864739322
• ISBN10: 086473932X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-01-01
• Publisher: Victoria University Press

Summary

Wystan Curnow is New Zealand’s longest-serving and, arguably, most important art critic. This edited collection brings together a selection of his art writings from 1971 to 2013 to provide the first comprehensive overview of his practice. Selectively drawing on his considerable output, the publication features Curnow’s long-form essays that investigate the stakes for “high culture” in a “small province” like New Zealand. It includes major essays on key artists, including Len Lye, Colin McCahon, Billy Apple, Stephen Bambury, Max Gimblett, and Imants Tillers, and vivid reports on the contemporary art scene. Catalog essays and short reviews offer insightful readings of art and artists in all their material and conceptual specificity. Both a map of contemporary theory and practice and a cogent agenda for thinking through the implications and challenges of making art here, this compilation is an essential companion for anyone interested in New Zealand art as it has unfolded since 1970.

Author Biography

Wystan Curnow is a former lecturer in the English department at the University of Auckland and an honorary research fellow. He has curated more than 30 exhibitions around New Zealand and internationally, and has played many roles in the art scene as curator, writer, critic, commissioner, speaker, editor, and advocate. He was instrumental in establishing Artspace in Auckland and is a Trustee of the Len Lye Foundation. In 2005 he was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for contributions to art and literature, and in 2009 was Distinguished International Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Robert Leonard is the senior curator at City Gallery Wellington. He has held senior positions including cirector of the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, and curator at Wellington’s National Art Gallery, New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Auckland’s Artspace, and Auckland Art Gallery. Christina Barton is the director of the Adam Art Gallery at Victoria University of Wellington. She is an art historian, a curator, and an editor known for her work on the history of postobject art in New Zealand.