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Natural environment / Taiao

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Cabbage trees

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Accession Number19,717CreatorClark, Russell (Russell Stuart), 1905-1966Datec.1953

Description

Media & Sizeoil on canvas; 1290 x 787mmInscriptionsl.l.: Russell Clark; on back of stretcher: Cabbage trees 50gnsDescriptionIn 1953 Russell Clark began a series of otherworldly paintings that emphasize the disquieting and anthropomorphic nature of the extraordinary cabbage tree or Tī kōuka. This body of work enabled Clark to explore the inherent strangeness of their haunting, natural forms and reveals the influence of English Neo-Romanticism, exemplified by the paintings of Graham Sutherland whose work Clark particularly admired, on the Christchurch-born artist.

The daring acid tones, mysterious shadows and moonlit sky of Cabbage Trees add a surrealist, dream-like quality to this painting. The geometric patterning, created by the cubist-inspired flattened tree and hill forms, and his juxtaposition of varying shades of green, which is a characteristic colour combination found in mid-century design, adds to the composition’s eye-catching appeal.

An isolated stand of cabbages trees growing in a paddock provides a powerful visual symbol for European pioneers who instigated the draining of swamps and clearing of native in order to create productive farmland. The use of distinctively local subject matter in this, and other paintings by Clark that often portray farm life and rural Maori, is indicative of a period of New Zealand art when many artists sought a characteristic, national style of painting.

In this respect Clark’s painting shares affinity with the work of his contemporaries E. Mervyn Taylor and Eric Lee- Johnson whose images of commonplace, rural landscapes showed they were on a similar quest to capture the real essence of this country. This development in New Zealand art saw the truthfulness of earlier landscape paintings, which were based on imported art conventions including ‘the ideal’ and ‘the sublime’, questioned.

As well as being a painter and sculptor, Clark had a very successful career as an Illustrator and commercial designer. His black and white drawings for the New Zealand Listener (1939-1962), pictures in the School Journal and countless book illustrations introduced his art to a whole generation of New Zealanders.

Natalie Poland
Formerly Curator of Pictorial Collections, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of OtagoProvenanceMona Edgar CollectionCitationRussell Clark (1905 - 1966), Cabbage Trees, c. 1953, oil on canvas, 1290 x 787mm, Mona Edgar Collection. Hocken Collections, Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago, 19,717

Depicts Or Relates To

SubjectsCabbage Tree (Trees)

CollectionNatural environment / Taiao

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Cabbage trees

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