Harsh clear light

A DigitalNZ Story by Courtney Johnston

Ah, meteorological determinism. Where would our art history have been without you? From Leonard Bell: "When I was last at Otira, a resident of the place who remembered van der Velden told me that the Dutchman was evidently quite mad. Evidently? Yes; because at all those times when the thunder rolled, and wind howled, and rain poured, van der Velden would go into the Gorge, whereas all those times when the sun shone from a cloudless sky, he would lie with his back to the grass near the hotel and sleep." Van der Velden sought the stormy landscape and poured that energy into his painting; the later regionalists sought the 'harsh clear light' that was seen to characterise our country and thus our painting. Or did it? The simplified shapes, flat areas of colour and strongly delineated outlines seen in the work of the regionalists here resemble strongly that seen in other countries where artists worked in the same style (Canada is significant here). Myself, I'm fascinated about where the regionalist style goes in its final years: Killeen, White, Smither, when the harsh clear gaze is turned on the urban and suburban landscape, and depictions of domestic life http://digitalnz.org.nz/user_sets/50a5ee64125757d3fe000021