National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries

Captain Cook on ARTstor

2010-03-11T11:33:2013:00:00

Art created during, or inspired by, the voyages of Captain James Cook has become rather popular of late.

Two contemporary New Zealand examples include Marian Maguire's series of lithographs entitled The Odyssey of Captain Cook (2005), in which Maguire exploited the tradition of Greek vase painting to create a mythological rendering of Captain Cook's travels, and the 2009 exhibition THE CAPTAIN exploring images of James Cook held at Tauranga Art Gallery.

This fascination in Captain Cook is not limited to contemporary artistic explorations but in the art and artifacts created and collected on these voyages. Two recent historical showcases include James Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific shown at the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH in Bonn and Auckland Museum’s exhibition Illustrated Leaves: Florilegia from the 16th to 21st Centuries. The Auckland show displayed botanical illustration by artists on Cook’s first Voyages including Sydney Parkinson, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander.

To reflect this continued interest in Cook’s travels ARTstor now includes the collection of Cook's Voyages to the South Seas. ARTstor has combined with the Natural History Museum, London to share 1,647 images of scientific illustration associated with all three of Cook’s Voyages.

For more information go to www.artstor.org/what-is-artstor/w-html/col-endeavour-london.shtml

Victoria Passau

Fine Arts Library

Gordon H. Brown 1964

2010-03-06T12:24:1413:00:00

The above cover page is from the Elam School of Fine Arts Library Rules of 1964 (Elam Archive 00-187) and while some of the formats and currency may have changed most of the rules have remained the same.

During this year Gordon H. Brown became the first specifically appointed Elam School of Fine Arts Librarian.* This was a sole charge position. The long hours and disjointed collection, especially in comparison to today, made it a challenging role to undertake.

Simon Franks interviewed Brown, regarding his experience as Elam librarian, as research for his MA thesis, "Elam 1890-1983" (1984). This interview and a number of others carried out with past and present staff of Elam, are kept in the Elam Archive (Elam Archive 05-188).†

Gordon H. Brown’s new book Towards a Promised Land: On the Life and Art of Colin McCahon (2010) was published by Auckland University Press.

*Elam School of Fine Arts Library had been managed from 1962-1964 by a librarian who had been transferred from the General Library.

† This collection includes interviews with Phil Dadson, Don Binney, Greer Twiss, John Turner, Garth Tapper, Colin McCahon, Hamish Keith, Valerie Richards, Gretchen Albrecht, Alberto Garcia-Alvarez, Colin Maiden [Vice Chancellor], Paul Beadle, Mel Simpson, Jolyon Saunders, Pat Hanly and Robert Ellis.

Victoria Passau
Fine Arts Library

Harold White Fellowship

2010-02-03T10:45:3513:00:00

Each year several Harold White Fellowships are awarded to enable established scholars and writers to undertake research at the National Library for periods of between three and six months. The Fellowships provide a return economy fare to Canberra, a living allowance, a fully equipped office and special access to Library collections and services. Honorary Fellowships are also awarded to scholars and writers who do not require financial assistance but would benefit from other privileges associated with the Fellowship.

Research projects supported by Harold White Fellowships can be in any discipline or area in which the Library has strong collections. Past Harold White Fellows have undertaken research in fields including biography, art history, media history, Australian history, musicology, Indigenous history, Pacific studies and folklore. Fellowships have been awarded to researchers from Australia and New Zealand as well as a number of other countries.

More information, a link to the online application form, and contact details are available here.

Stephanie Reid

Fine Arts Library

Journal of Art Historiography

2010-01-28T13:22:3813:00:00

The Journal of Art Historiography, described as the first contemporary journal dedicated to the study of art historiography, is now available through the Library Catalogue.

The open access journal is published by the Institute for the History of Art at the University of Glasgow and intends to look beyond the traditional discipline boundaries suggested by the term Art History, instead taking a broader approach to include such disciplines as archaeology, anthropology, ethnography and other specialist disciplines and approaches dealing with the visual arts.

The editors state:

This journal exists to support and promote the study of the history and practice of art historical writing. The historiography of art has been strongly influenced by traditions inaugurated by Giorgio Vasari, Winckelmann and German academics of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Consequent to the expansion of universities, museums and galleries, the field has evolved to include areas outside of its traditional boundaries.

There is a double danger that contemporary scholarship will forget its earlier legacy and that it will neglect the urgency and rigour with which those early debates were conducted. The earlier legacy remains embedded in ‘normal’ practice. More recent art history also stands in need of its own scrutiny. The journal is committed to studying art historical scholarship, in its institutional and conceptual foundations, from the past to the present day in all areas and all periods.

The journal is available online here.

Stephanie Reid

Fine Arts Library

Digitisation of E.W. Payton's Round About New Zealand (1888)

2010-01-15T12:23:1013:00:00

The Fine Arts Library has made an Elam taonga accessible through the digitisation of E.W. Payton’s Round about New Zealand: being notes from a journal of three year’s; wanderings in the antipodes.

Edward William Payton (1859-1944) held the position of principal of Elam School of Art from its founding in 1890 until his retirement in 1924. Payton originally came out to New Zealand in 1883 and spent nearly four years travelling the country sketching. His published journal Round about New Zealand (1888) includes descriptions of his time in the King Country and Whanganui regions, with the renowned photographer Alfred Burton.

B_____’s camera and my sketches received a good deal of attention from the natives, and opinions were divided as to which was the most interesting to watch – the camera with all its mechanical arrangements or my colour-box. I had something to show them in my sketches; but B___, who never developed his plates, had nothing but his camera to show. However, I think he was the favourite… (Payton, 1888, p. 280)

Incidentally while Burton is ‘B_____’ in Round About New Zealand, Payton is ‘Mr P’ in Burton’s Diary (Burton & Rotorua Art Gallery, 1980).

Payton’s publication complements the collection of copies of his en plein air sketch books and original photographic prints which are held in Elam’s Special Collections. In 1986 photocopies and original records created by E.W. Payton over a period of nearly 40 years, were lent by his granddaughter to the respected photographer and Elam academic John B. Turner. In 1989 these items were accessioned and catalogued to form part of the Elam Archive.

Payton would have utilised these sketch compositions, or rough précis, to create more finished works (Balm, 2000). An example of this is shown below, where he obviously uses the sketch to create his illustration of The Tomb of the Maori Chief, Pipiriki, Whanganui (p. 256). In some ways this impression of a scene is more evocative than the tightly composed book illustration.

The copies of his en plein air sketch books, comprising hundreds of pages, provide a visual resource of regions throughout New Zealand, providing an insight into late nineteenth-to-early-twentieth century New Zealand.

An important caveat is that the majority of this collection is made up of photocopies. The originals are still in private hands. While for the textual sources, where the content is not significantly affected, it is a different situation for the original watercolours, where the images are not in colour but in black and white. Consequently the images have lost a level of subtlety and depth.

Contemporaries and fellow teachers included Frank and Walter Wright and Kennett Watkins, who became well known artists. Payton’s place in art history on the other hand, has not reflected the early kudos accorded his work. (Payton & Rotorua Art Gallery, 1994)

This quote is drawn from the brief exhibition catalogue created for the 1994 exhibition entitled “Payton’s Place in New Zealand Art History” held by the Rotorua Art and History Museum. Rotorua’s Museum of Art and History holds the most significant collection of Payton’s photographs (with nearly 1000 of his photographs being held in their online catalogue).

Payton may not have received the same level of kudos attained by his peers. However, Round About New Zealand, the archival materials and his art work have ‘something to show’ for the past and for future generations. As artistic, historical and social documents, they provide evidence of the travels in which Payton was involved. They are an insight into the times in which they were created, especially in terms of the exploration and discovery of New Zealand, even in the later nineteenth century. They are significant in the way in which they show the role of the artist and photographer in creating our sense of place. They also illustrate the way in which photographers and artists, such as Payton, helped to start devising a visual language to represent a landscape which was to become our own.

They offer a sense of identity for his family, the wider community and Elam alumnae who can include themselves a part of the heritage he helped to create. This archive and publication is therefore deemed as taonga for both the Payton family and their descendants, as well as for those people whose ancestors and lands he depicted. This is a concept which Payton who was a fluent speaker of Maori, would appreciate.

Balm, R. (2000). Expeditionary Art: An Appraisal. Geographical Review, 90(4), 585-602.
Burton, A., & Rotorua Art Gallery. (1980). King Country journey, Alfred Burton : Rotorua Art Gallery travelling exhibition. Rotorua: The Gallery.
Payton, E. W. (1888). Round about New Zealand : being notes from a journal of three years' wanderings in the antipodes. London: Chapman & Hall.
Payton, E. W., & Rotorua Art Gallery. (1994). Payton's place in New Zealand art history : June 3 -August 29, 1994. Rotorua: Rotorua Art & History Museum.

Victoria Passau
Fine Arts Library

Christmas Cheer

2009-12-22T15:28:3813:00:00

The staff at the Fine Arts Library would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We look forward to seeing you in 2010.

Here is an image from the small collection of Paul and Betty Beadle's well renowned handmade Christmas cards held in the Elam Archive and Special Collections. Click on the image to see more.

This post is in response to the Christmas card discussed by Jo Birks on the Special Collections blog.

Fine Arts Library

Vincent Van Gogh: The Complete Letters

2009-12-09T11:13:4113:00:00

The long awaited complete illustrated and annotated edition of Van Gogh’s letters, drawn from world class museums, archives and private collections, is now available for viewing at the Fine Arts Library.

Vincent Van Gogh’s letters have been universally accepted as the best written by any artist, making them some of the most valuable documents in the art world.

This tome, published by Thames & Hudson, includes over 4,300 illustrations, with each letter fully transcribed and translated into a six volume box set. Please ask at the desk if you would like to view them: 759 G61jaL v.1-6, including CD-ROM.

If you are unable to visit the library you can also view all 902 letters to and from Van Gogh at http://vangoghletters.org/vg/

Click on the quotes to read some reviews:

“Van Gogh's letters provide an extraordinary map of the artist's interior world” – The Guardian

“Probably the most important art publication of the century so far” – The Independent on Sunday

“Transforms our understanding of the artist…magnificent” – The Art Newspaper

Victoria Passau

Fine Arts Library

Free Image collection

2009-11-30T10:56:2613:00:00

Smithsonian Collections Search Centre
Search over 2 million records with 265,900 images, video and sound files, electronic journals and other resources from the Smithsonian's museums, archives & libraries.

A search for New Zealand for example, ticking the “only return results with online media” retrieves 445 documents.

Go direct or link from the Fine Arts Library resource pages

Study space

2009-11-24T10:49:4313:00:00

Do you need a quiet place to study over the summer?

Please feel free to use one of the calm and cool study carrels in the Fine Arts Library. Each carrel includes power points and WiFi access.

Fine Arts Library

The National Gallery Technical Bulletin goes online in 2010

2009-11-11T17:30:4013:00:00

Volume 30, 2009 is the final print issue of National Gallery Technical Bulletin.

The National Gallery in London joins the growing trend of publishing technical and scholarly research resources online. Open access to online literature and a searchable database dispenses with access barriers to this quality technical and research publication.

2010 will see the National Gallery Technical Bulletin, previously an annual publication, re-launched as a free online journal available on the National Gallery website through a designated ‘Research’ link:

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/research/

Ashok Roy outlines the changes in the publishing policy of the Technical Bulletin in his editorial: Past and Future.
The first National Gallery Technical Bulletin was published in 1977, reporting on unique research carried out by the Gallery's specialist conservators and conservation scientists. It achieved a respected position in the study of the materials and techniques of painting, and the scientific examination of paintings.

Research is considered a fundamental activity at the National Gallery and is described as ‘underpinning many areas of the Gallery’s work’. This research contributes to the understanding of the National Gallery collection which is closely studied and researched as a result.
The online Bulletin will continue to be a valuable reading resource for art historians, conservators, conservation scientists, collectors and curators.

Online publication enables greater access to detailed illustrations from National Gallery sources and the content will be searchable in the future. While acknowledging the financial constraints of publishing in print influenced the shift to the online version, new and revised research will continue to be supported and an increased speed of publication is anticipated.
Back issues will be added once copyright clearance for external images can be obtained.

The Fine Arts Library will continue to hold print copies of Vol. 17 (1996)-v. 30 (2009) which are available for borrowing

Susan Rowntree

Fine Arts Library