COMP CLOSED | Book Giveaway | Gordon Walters

Gordon Walters
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We are very pleased to be giving away two copies of Francis Pound’s book ‘Gordon Walters’, to our GrownUps members.

All you need to do to enter the draw is be a GrownUps member, make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter and fill in your details near the bottom of the page!

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About Gordon Walters

The first substantial monograph on the art of one of this country’s most influential artists, Gordon Walters.

In this remarkable study by the late Francis Pound, author of the landmark Invention of New Zealand, we are introduced to the making of a New Zealand modernist – tracing the work of Gordon Walters (1919–1995) from student charcoal sketches in the 1930s to the revelation of the mature Koru works at the 1966 New Vision Gallery exhibition in Auckland.

Pound follows Walters through steps and missteps, explorations and diversions, travel in Aotearoa and overseas, as the artist discovers new forms, invents others and discards many more. Pound looks hard at the paint, the brushes, the rulers, the scrapbooks, to reveal an artist at work. And, resolutely internationalist like the artist, the author provides not only astute insights into Walters’ art, but also a guide to the elements and ideas that informed the work – notably, Māori and Pacific art, surrealism, Mondrian, De Stijl, the Bauhaus and Euro-American abstraction, conceptual art and minimalism.

With Francis Pound accompanying us through the work as guide, critic, wit and enthusiast, Gordon Walters is an extraordinary journey into twentieth- century art.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr Francis Pound (1948–2017) was a New Zealand art historian, curator and writer. He taught for some years in the art history department of the University of Auckland before becoming an independent art curator and writer. His books include Frames on the Land: Early Landscape Painting in New Zealand (Collins, 1983), The Space Between: Pakeha Use of Maori Motifs in Modernist New Zealand Art (Workshop Press, 1994), Stories We Tell Ourselves: The Paintings of Richard Killeen (Auckland Art Gallery and David Bateman, 1999), Walters: En Abyme (Gus Fisher Gallery, 2004) and The Invention of New Zealand: Art & National Identity, 1930–1970 (Auckland University Press, 2009).

ENDORSEMENTS

Praise for Francis Pound’s The Invention of New Zealand

‘Because of the book’s lengthy gestation some might wonder if it was like Samuel Beckett’s Godot who, though long-awaited, never shows up. But any sceptics have been thoroughly confounded. Pound has not only delivered,
he has written one of the great books of this country. It is passionate, scholarly, witty, crowded with characters and ideas, rich in texture, highly readable and admirably contentious. Art history in New Zealand will never be quite the same.’
— Peter Simpson, New Zealand Herald

‘The Invention of New Zealand is no mere technical essay nor a dissertation of various art manifestos. It is a full- blooded history, personal at times, disputatious often, and it breathes life at every turn, reminding us that art and art theory are the products of emotion and will.’ — Vaughan Yarwood, New Zealand Geographic

‘Francis Pound’s extraordinary, wittily written, finely researched, in-depth study of an ideological theme, that, as he shows, dominated art in New Zealand for 40 years – and is still not altogether dead – deserves an in-depth reading. It is one of the most ambitious accounts of New Zealand-critical positions in the first phases of New Zealand’s modernism, clear and incisive in its attack on ‘Nationalism’. I have had a good time reading this book. If I were to award ratings, definitely 5 stars.’ — Tony Green, Poussin’s Humour

‘These are crude abbreviations of a superb book which raises academic writing in this country to an extraordinary new standard. Though its focus is on a relatively short but critical period of New Zealand art, its text is an endlessly effervescent provocation that has one wishing for a wider education and more time to read the very many referenced texts. The Invention of New Zealand: Art & National Identity, 1930–1970 is a superb work that offers rich insights into the time when artists, writers and those of our own trade were exhorted to create an intellectual infrastructure to complement the labours of the black-singleted and pinnied colonial forebears.’ — Pip Cheshire, Interstices

Foreword and Afterword by Leonard Bell

Leonard Bell is an independent art and cultural historian based in Auckland. Among other works, he is author of Colonial Constructs: European Images of Maori 1840–1914 (1992), Marti Friedlander (2009), Strangers Arrive: Emigrés and the Arts in New Zealand, 1930–1980 (2017) and Marti Friedlander: Portraits of the Artists (2020), all published by Auckland University Press.

 

 

Terms and conditions

    1. You must be a GrownUps member and receive our newsletter to be eligible to win.
    2. Competition closes on the 10th October 2023, winners will be notified via email by 12th October 2023.
    3. It is your responsibility to ensure you correctly enter a New Zealand postal address where the prize can be couriered. GrownUps will not take responsibility for prizes sent to incorrect addresses.
    4. Winners are drawn at random by the GrownUps administration team.
    5. GrownUps employees and family are not eligible to enter.
    6. By entering the giveaway, you approve for GrownUps to use your name on social media as winner of the competition.
    7. One entry per household.
    8. Prize is non transferrable.
    9. You must reside in New Zealand – the prize will only be posted within New Zealand.
    10. You must be over 50 years of age to enter, check your details are correct in your membership dashboard.