In Pursuit of Greatness
Frances Hodgkins: European Journeys Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki 4 May–1 September, curated by Mary Kisler
There are many ways one could construct an exhibition of Frances Hodgkins’ work—and over the years a number of shows, some thematic, some exploring her development or connections with other artists, have been staged by New Zealand galleries. To mark the 150th anniversary of Hodgkins’ birth, curator Mary Kisler has chosen to orchestrate Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki’s around the artist’s peripatetic life after she left the land of her birth in 1901, ultimately never to return. Kisler has also headed the development of the forthcoming , which has led her to visit many of the locations where Hodgkins painted, and the exhibition also capitalises on this research. This approach necessarily excludes Hodgkins’ early New Zealand work and her brief but productive foray into textile design is also not represented; however, her sojourn in Morocco, which she found fascinating, does find a place here. Although the various gallery spaces are given over to specific regions the exhibition is not strictly chronological; as well as travelling in Holland, Wales and Italy, Hodgkins visited France, Spain and England several times—in fact her nomadic pursuit of cheap living conditions and stimulating subject matter would exhaust most of us even today. War drove her back to England on more than one occasion but for the most part her itinerant lifestyle was self-imposed: ‘My great panacea is change of environment. During Hodgkins’ early years in Europe new developments in art were at fever pitch. She attended a futurist conference in Paris in 1912 (‘a remarkable meeting . . . the excitement! And the uproar!’ ) and was impressed by the work of artists such as Picasso, Braque and Matisse, less so perhaps by that of Dufy. Traces of their various influences can be found in her work but, despite their ‘eye-opening’ effects, Hodgkins was not an early adopter of the more advanced aspects of French modernism. Up to the early 1910s she seems to owe more to aspects of impressionism, such as the paintings of Morisot, and perhaps also the intimism of Bonnard and Vuillard, as evidenced in watercolours such as and (both c.1912).
