MERVYN WILLIAMS by Milford Galleries

MERVYN WILLIAMS

Round-up: very new paintings 25 Oct to 19 Nov 2014

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

Milford Galleries Dunedin 18 Dowling Street (03) 477 7727 info@milfordhouse.co.nz

Ringing (2013) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1220 x 1220 x 33 mm

Flare Factor (2012) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1225 x 1220 x 33 mm

Limelight (2013) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1220 x 1220 x 33 mm

Suprematist (2014) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1223 x 1220 x 33 mm

Centrefuge (2013) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1223 x 1220 x 33 mm

Twin Spinner (2014) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1220 x 1220 x 33 mm

Samba (Red) (2012) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1220 x 1220 x 33 mm

Rebel (2012) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1225 x 1223 x 33 mm

Calypso (2013) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1223 x 1220 x 33 mm

In the major book just published on Mervyn Williams career, “Mervyn Williams: From modernism to the digital age”, three of New Zealand’s pre-eminent art historians (Edward Hanfling, Leonard Bell, Michael Dunn) clearly identify Williams as having “perfected a method of chiaroscuro painting based on Renaissance techniques, giving rise to a powerful illusion of high relief and three dimensionality.” Williams work is further identified as “unique and original, defining the artist’s career and setting it apart from his contemporaries.” (1) There can be no doubt now that when the history of abstract art in NZ comes to be corrected and rewritten that Williams will be acknowledged as a very significant figure; as singular and important as Walters, Hotere, Mrkusich, Hanly. His new paintings, combining digital technology with traditional paint-on-canvas, see Williams returning to the optical concerns that began his career. Like Gerhard Richter, Williams is seeking the phenomenons of event and occurrence, of surprise and wonder with image and paint. This pursuit and achievement of profound sensory excitement, delivering “beguiling optical vibrations” (2) activates these remarkable works. These works are astonishments, delivered with “a distinctly contemporary precision and lustre.” (3) These strikingly original works use “systems and patterns and spaces that could not have been realised before.” (4) In so doing, Williams returns “to some of the elements of Op Art with which he began in the 1960’s. Many of the forms and techniques he is using are the same: circles; closely-spaced lines; spatial ambiguity; optical vibration; chiaroscuro.” (5) 1. Edward Hanfling, Mervyn Williams, Ron Sang Publications, 2014, inside dust jacket 2. Edward Hanfling, 240 Years of NZ Painting, Docking, Dunn, Hanfling, Bateman 2012, p. 246 3. Edward Hanfling, Mervyn Williams, Ron Sang Publications, 2014, p. 294 4. Ibid 5. Ibid, p. 291

MERVYN WILLIAMS b. 1940, lives Auckland

Pale Jade (2012)

“My work is concerned with perception, the nature and interpretation of reality. I use subtle modulations of light and shade to create surfaces reminiscent of photography, spatially ambiguous, reflecting some other reality. I seek to re-examine the relationships between what we see and what we know, between empirical fact and deduction, reality and illusion.” (1) The planes of Mervyn Williams’ paintings protrude, ripple and undulate but the play of light he coerces from his works is full of trickery and illusion. In the tradition of abstract artists such as Mark Rothko and Milan Mrkusich, Williams explores the boundaries of his chosen medium. Unlike these artists however, Williams defies the limits of the flat canvas surface, creating “visual magic…a conjuring up of surrogate realities.” (2) The protrusions and ripples seen in his paintings are compositions of paint and light, existing only in the eye; the mind endeavours to see what is actually present rather than what it expects to see. Williams was born in Whakatane in 1940 and lives and works in Auckland. He has exhibited regularly in New Zealand since 1966 and is represented in all major public and many private collections in this country as well as in private collections in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia.

1. 2.

Mervyn Williams quoted in Michael Dunn, “Contemporary Painting in New Zealand,” Craftsman House, Australia, 1996 Warwick Brown, “100 New Zealand Paintings”, Godwit, 1995

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Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

MERVYN WILLIAMS b. 1940, lives Auckland EDUCATION 1957-58

Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2014

2013 2010 2008 2007 2006 2004 2003 2002 2001 1999 1997 1995 1993 1991/92 1989

1988 1987 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1975

Round-Up, Milford Galleries Dunedin Lost For Words: Mervyn Williams from Modernism to the Digital Age, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland Coloured-In, Milford Galleries Dunedin Colour Corrected, Artis Gallery, Auckland 20 years of Painted Illusion, Artis Gallery, Auckland Round & Round, Artis Gallery, Auckland In the Round, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Recent Paintings, Judith Anderson Gallery, Hawkes Bay Selected Works, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Southern Oscillation, Milford Galleries Dunedin Quotrains, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Quintessence, Michael Carr, Sydney, Australia Quintessence, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland The Nature of Things, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland The Nature of Things, SPAN Gallery, Melbourne, Australia In the Round: Recent Paintings, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Exposures: New Paintings, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland New Work, Brooker Gallery, Wellington Between Darkness and Light, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Points of Departure, Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui In Different Light, Portfolio Gallery, Auckland Wood Works Wanganui, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Works on Paper, Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North Works in Progress, Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui Recent Paintings, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Recent Gouaches, Portfolio Gallery, Auckland Recent Paintings, Louise Beale Gallery, Wellington Recent Paintings, New Vision Gallery, Auckland Twelve Gouaches, New Vision Gallery, Auckland Recent Paintings, Louise Beale Gallery, Wellington Recent Paintings, RSK Art, Auckland Recent Paintings, Elva Bett Gallery, Wellington Recent Paintings, Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland Paintings and Drawings, Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2014 2012 2010 2006

2005 2004 2000

Dibble / Kihara / Williams, milford galleries queenstown Significant Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin Mervyn Williams/Chris Bailey/Lorene Taurerewa, Milford Galleries Dunedin Significant Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin Sleight of Hand: Port Nelson Suter Biennale, The Suter Gallery, Nelson Essence, milford galleries auckland Chosen, milford galleries auckland Winter Light, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Masterworks, milford galleries auckland Chosen, milford galleries auckland Frieze, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Transit Of Venus, milford galleries auckland OverView - Abstraction & Still Life, Milford Galleries Dunedin Opposites Attract - Paul Dibble & Mervyn Williams, Michael Carr, Sydney, Australia

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Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

1998 1997 1994 1992 1990 1988 1984 1983 1982 1979 1978 1977 1972 1969 1967 1966

Achromatic, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Ross Bleckner Mark Francis, Leigh Martin, Mervyn Williams, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Current Abstractions, Milford Galleries Dunedin Parallel Lines, Gordon Walters in Context, Auckland City Art Gallery Surface Tension, Auckland City Art Gallery Out of the Woods, Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui Faith and Works, Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North Mervyn Williams & Gordon Walters, CSA Gallery, Christchurch Aspects Of Recent New Zealand Art, The Grid, Auckland Art Gallery Touring Exhibition Seven Painters/The Eighties, Touring Exhibition NZ Drawing Exhibition, CSA Gallery, Christchurch Auckland Painters Exhibition, Auckland City Art Gallery NZ Prints Exhibition, Auckland City Art Gallery Biennale Graphic Art, Paris, France Biennale of Graphic Art – Yugoslavia Pat Hanly & Mervyn Williams, CSA Gallery, Christchurch Biennale of Graphic Art, Tokyo, Japan

AWARDS 1988 1981 1978 1969 1966

Artist in Residence – Wanganui First Prize, Tokoroa Painting Award QE II Arts Council Grant NZ Print Council Samarkand Award First Prize, (Prints) Hay’s Art Award

COLLECTIONS Chartwell Collection, Auckland New Zealand Embassy, Washington DC, USA New Zealand Embassy, Consulate General, New York, USA Private collections USA, Canada, Europe, UK, Japan and Australia All major public and many private collections in New Zealand

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 2014 2010 1996 1995 1992 1991 1989

1986 1985

Hanfling, Edward, Mervyn Williams: From Modernism to the Digital Age, Ron Sang Publications, Auckland Dunn, Michael, Looking Back: Mervyn Williams at 70, Art New Zealand, No 136, Summer 2010, pg 44-48 Dunn, Michael, Contemporary Painting in New Zealand, Craftsman House, Sydney, Australia, pg 204-207 Brown, Warwick, 100 New Zealand Paintings, Godwit Press, pg 96-97 Barton, Christina, Surface Tension: Ten Artists in the 90's, Auckland City Art Gallery Dunn, Michael, A Concise History of New Zealand Painting, Bateman Panaho, Rangihiroa, Points of Departure, Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui Wedde, Ian, Mervyn Williams: Painting with his Feet in Wanganui, Art New Zealand, No 51, Winter 1989, pg 62-65 Bett, Elva, New Zealand Art: A Modern Perspective, Reed Methuen Dunn, Michael, Mervyn Williams, A Vision of Light, Art New Zealand, No 36, Spring 1985, pg 32-35

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Milford Galleries Dunedin