Helen Brown
Auckland Harbour, 1969
oil on canvas
700 x 900mm
750 x 950mm framed
750 x 950mm framed
On Loan Courtesy of The Fletcher Trust Collection
Helen Brown 1917 – 1986 Helen Brown studied at Elam School of Fine Arts in the 1930s. There, she was introduced to modernist ideas, and began a studied engagement with...
Helen Brown
1917 – 1986
Helen Brown studied at Elam School of Fine Arts in the 1930s. There, she was introduced to modernist ideas, and began a studied engagement with abstract painting that she would later seek to reconcile with approaches to painting the New Zealand landscape. Her stark depictions of terrain and bodies of water retain a reference to environment, while engaging in a reductive exploration of paint. Auckland Harbour from 1969 is a striking example. With its highly reductive imagery and minimal palette, this painting demonstrates the careful balancing act of rendering landscape in a painterly language borrowed from abstraction.
This work appears courtesy of The Fletcher Trust Collection.
1917 – 1986
Helen Brown studied at Elam School of Fine Arts in the 1930s. There, she was introduced to modernist ideas, and began a studied engagement with abstract painting that she would later seek to reconcile with approaches to painting the New Zealand landscape. Her stark depictions of terrain and bodies of water retain a reference to environment, while engaging in a reductive exploration of paint. Auckland Harbour from 1969 is a striking example. With its highly reductive imagery and minimal palette, this painting demonstrates the careful balancing act of rendering landscape in a painterly language borrowed from abstraction.
This work appears courtesy of The Fletcher Trust Collection.
Exhibitions
Representation and Reaction: Modernism and the New Zealand Landscape Tradition 1956–1977, Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua, Whanganui, 31 August - 27 October 2002 (toured)Revisiting Modernism, 27 September - 14 October 2023, Gow Langsford Gallery, Kitchener St, Auckland, NZ