The Weight of the World: Dick Frizzell

 Dick Frizzell is one of Aotearoa’s most widely known and celebrated painters.  His work traverses’ genres with an assured confidence and skill. In this major new exhibition, Frizzell returns to the historically rich tradition of landscape painting, embedded, as ever, with his playful and idiosyncratic sensibilities. Frizzell’s landscapes bring into focus fragments of the New Zealand landscape that feel deeply familiar. They are down-to-earth, up-the-road, intentionally unspectacular scenes.  Poplar trees emerge from the end of a gravel path, a ladies toilet stands on a lean, a boarded-up fishing hut sits proudly in the sunshine, while a shadowed tree foregrounds a rolling mist – in Frizzell’s hands, the quotidian is front-and-centre spectacular. They come, moreover, from a place of optimism.  Frizzell comments: “My landscapes occupy a special place in my affections because they define, more than any other of my endeavours, the most solid manifestation of my philosophy. Both the subjects and their manner of representation are chosen to emphasise my eternally optimistic faith in the physical universe that I believe we are ultimately destined to define. I hope… through my piles of hills, stumps, trees and land… to literally convey ‘the gravity of the situation’.” [1]

Traversing broad vistas and local, side-of-the-road scenes, Frizzell’s approach to selecting his subject matter has developed as a sort of language, a Frizzellean alphabet that grows out of looking. It usually involves “a high horizon, lots of pattern, generally folding to a central motif, a kind of knuckle, like a road or a river.” Frizzell continues, “Of course, as a painter, part of my job is looking for pattern in the world, making order out of the chaos.” [2] There is a directness to Frizzell’s choices, a simplicity, which is part of what makes his work so relatable. “I get something in my head and I can’t wait to get it out so I can have a look at it… Moving faster than the speed of thought, I call it.  If you have to think about it then something’s not working.  It usually means you are straying too far from home, trying too hard.” [3] It is learned instinct that draws Frizzell in. Simplicity however, as Frizzell is quick to point out, is the fastest way to seriousness. The two go hand-in-hand under Frizzell’s brush.  In Milling Whakaangiangi, one of the major works in the exhibition, a large plantation of pine is a familiar sight. Pinus radiata has been a go-to in Aotearoa, encouraged by carbon-credit incentives, but the over-planting of pine is contentious when considering long-term impacts on climate, biodiversity and soil degradation.  Frizzell’s interest in the scene feels more matter-of-fact, compelled by lines and form, rolling back into a misty mountain range, but reality is ever-present. In recent email correspondence, Frizzell commented “I hope I inspire a little ‘awe’ along the way… weighted with reality.” [4] This sentiment rings particularly true standing before this work.

Over 35 years ago, Frizzell was part of Gow Langsford Gallery’s inaugural exhibition, which took place in a converted petrol station in 1987. Frizzell, who has been represented by the gallery ever since, owes much of his long-standing success to his ability to change, adapt and reinvent himself.  Knowing when to hold on, and when to let go can be a difficult thing to do. As is knowing when to return to an idea. Frizzell has successfully navigated this terrain throughout his career, embracing renewal and reinvention as he goes. The Weight of the World sees Frizzell return to the genre of landscape painting, wielding decades of experience.  It’s not something to be taken lightly, as he suggests in the title.  The task of the painter, faced with a blank canvas, can feel like the Greek Titan Atlas, condemned to hold up the sky for eternity.  The results, however, bring us right back to earth.  Frizzell’s Aotearoa is real – tree stumps, trimmed hedges, bent pine.  It is real, relatable, and whole-heartedly Frizzellean.

[1] Frizzell, Dick, Exhibition text, Landscapes: Dick Frizzell and Karl Maughan, 2018, Gow Langsford Lorne Street
[2] Frizzell, Dick, Me, According To The History Of Art, Massey University Press, 2020, Auckland, p.295
[3] Ibid, p.17
[4] Email correspondence with Dick Frizzell, July 2025