Vivian Lynn
Vivian Lynn | |
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Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Christchurch Art Gallery | |
Style | Print, drawing, painting, sculpture |
Vivian Isabella Lynn (née Robertson; 30 November 1931 – 1 December 2018) was a New Zealand artist.[1]
Education
Lynn was born in
Support for the women's art movement
Lynn was one of the first New Zealand artists to address
Lynn was featured in a special issue of the New Zealand feminist magazine Broadsheet published in 1983, focused on feminist art.[7]: 189 In an interview Lynn discussed how during World War II she had seen both her parents working in jobs, raising their children and sharing family chores.[7]: 189 She continued:
There was value placed on women’s work because it was politically expedient for it to be so in the early 1940s ... so I had formative years where I was conditioned to expect equality. But social values changed after the War as women were required to be wives and mothers again, rather than members of the paid workforce. A profession and marriage were again presented as mutually exclusive.[7]: 189
Work
Lynn worked across a wide range of media, including collages, drawings, paintings, prints, books, sculptures, photographs and installations.[8]
In 1972, Lynn spent a year in the United States, where she developed her interest in printmaking; throughout the 1970s she worked with this medium, producing works such as Book of Forty Images (1973–1974) and Playground,, which explore 'the reasons behind women's social and political oppression'.[6][9]
Between 1977 and 1979, Lynn produced a series of works on paper, now held in the Christchurch Art Gallery, in which she reworked drawings and life studies made at art school, in a comment on 'the sexual politics of the Western art historical tradition'.[8]
Lynn is probably best known for her large installation works of the early 1980s. Guarden Gates (1982) (first shown at the Janne Land Gallery, now in the collection of the
Art historian Priscilla Pitts notes that 'Lynn frequently sought equivalents or proxies for the
Gates of the Goddess – a southern crossing attended by the Goddess (1986, first shown at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and now in the collection of the Auckland Art Gallery) consists of three large panels, two of which form a passageway for the viewer and the third being a focal point with the form of the goddess.[6][15] The work brings together many of Lynn's concerns particularly healing the abject as in the 1982 work Mantle. By recovering destroyed and damaged tapa, drawing attention to the low status (craft) assigned to women's production and by analogy to reproduction Lynn creates a work of simple beauty.
Between the late 1980s and 2008, Lynn worked with her own
A survey exhibition of Lynn’s work titled I, HERE, NOW: Vivian Lynn, curated by Christina Barton, was held at the Adam Art Gallery at Victoria University of Wellington in 2008–09.[16]
Lynn's work is held in public collections throughout New Zealand, including
Senior Curator at the Dowse Art Museum Melanie Oliver had this to say about her:
"Vivian's practice was wide-ranging and spanned many significant developments in art in Aotearoa New Zealand. She forged a unique pathway, posing questions around the nature/culture discourse, ecology, identity, a repressed feminine and dominant masculine culture."[20]
Lynn was a teacher also and taught for many years at the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design (now Massey University).[21]
Death
Lynn died in Wellington following a long illness on 1 December 2018, the day after her 87th birthday.[22][23]
Exhibitions
Vivian Lynn's solo exhibitions include:[24]
- 1971 Vivian Lynn prints and paintings, New Vision Gallery, Auckland
- 1978– Taupatauma, environmental project, Colombo Street, Wellington
- 1982 A survey 1972–80 and new work, City Art Gallery, Wellington (now City Gallery Wellington)
- 1983 Twist, National Art Gallery, Wellington (now Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa)
- 1986 The Goddess gateway: a southern crossing attended by the goddess, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
- 1986 Vivian Lynn – Caryatid, Installation project 2, City Art Gallery, Wellington
- 1993 Vivian Lynn: Guarden gates and related works, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
- 1997 Spin: versor versari, City Gallery Wellington
- 1999 Mantles, maladies, mutations and Prussian blue, Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North (now Te Manawa)
- 2008 I, HERE, NOW Vivian Lynn, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington
Group exhibitions in which Lynn has participated include:[24]
- 1963 Contemporary New Zealand Painting 1963, Auckland City Art Gallery (now Auckland Art Gallery
- 1966 New Zealand Painting 1966, Auckland City Art Gallery
- '1966 Group of seven: painting, Dunedin Public Art Gallery
- 1980 Opening exhibition, City Art Gallery, Wellington
- 1980 Women in communication, National Art Gallery, Wellington
- 1981 Me by myself: the self portrait, National Art Gallery, Wellington
- 1983 Lamella-lamina, ANZART-in-Hobart, Hobart, Australia
- 1983 Lamella-Asherim, 4+1, Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt
- 1984 Aspects of recent New Zealand art: anxious images, Auckland City Art Gallery (and touring)
- 1986 Content/Context: a survey of recent New Zealand art, National Art Gallery and Shed 11, Wellington
- 1989 Community of women, National Art Gallery, Wellington
- 1991 Art and organised labour, Wellington City Art Gallery
- 1992 The sacred way: 22 Wellington artists explore the spiritual dimension, Wellington City Art Gallery
- 1993 Alter image: negotiating feminism and representation in recent New Zealand art 1973–1993, City Gallery Wellington
- 1996 Sharp and shiny: fetishism in New Zealand art, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
- 2008 We are unsuitable for framing, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tonagrewa
- 2009 Role, Play, Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington
- 2018 Embodied Knowledge, The Dowse Art Museum[25]
References
- ^ "Lynn, Vivian". The Dominion Post. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
- ^ "Lynn, Vivian". Find New Zealand Artists. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
- ^ "Vivian Lynn – Hall of Fame". Wellington Girls' College. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
- ^ ISBN 0908877749.
- ^ a b "Interview with Vivian Lynn". Art School 125: 125 years of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
- ^ ISBN 014009234X.
- ^ ISBN 9768097302.
- ^ a b "50s Model Series by Vivian Lynn". Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu. 18 October 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
- ISBN 0908818149.
- ^ Kirker, Anne (Autumn 1983). "Vivian Lynn's Garden Gates". Art New Zealand (26). Retrieved 22 February 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-909010-96-6.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link - ^ "Vivian Lynn talks about her work Guarden gates, 1982". Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. 29 October 2010. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
- ^ Strathdee, Barbara (Autumn 1983). "Women Artists at the F1 New Zealand Sculpture Project". Art New Zealand (26). Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- ^ ISBN 1869531698.
- ^ Cook, Megan (16 October 2012). "'Women's movement – Arts and spirituality'". Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
- ^ "I, Here, Now: Vivian Lynn". Adam Art Gallery. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
- ^ "Vivian Lynn". Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
- ^ "Lynn, Vivian". Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
- ^ "Vivian Lynn". Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
- ^ "Vivian Lynn, 1931–2018". The Dowse Art Museum. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
- ^ "Remembering Vivian Lynn | City Gallery Wellington". City Gallery. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
- ^ "Vivian Lynn". Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
- ^ "Adam Art Gallery". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
- ^ ISBN 978-1877309175.
- ^ "Embodied Knowledge". The Dowse Art Museum. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
Further reading
- Anne Kirker, 'Exhibitions: Wellington', Art New Zealand, no. 17, Spring 1980
- Gordon H Brown, 'Vivian Lynn', Art New Zealand, no. 19, Autumn 1981
- Anne Kirker, 'Vivian Lynn's Guarden Gates', Art New Zealand, no. 23, 1983
- Barbara Strathdee, 'Women Artists At The F1 New Zealand Sculpture Project', Art New Zealand, no. 26, 1983
- Abby Cunnane, 'Being alive : the art of Vivian Lynn', Art New Zealand, no. 130, Autumn 2009
- Megan Cook, Women's movement – Arts and spirituality, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 13 July 2012
- Robert Leonard, Vivian Lynn: Playground Series
- Christina Barton, Remembering Vivian Lynn, City Gallery Wellington, 9 December 2018
- Christina Barton, 'Vivian Lynn (1931 - 2018), Art New Zealand, Number 169, Autumn 2019
External links
- Vivian Lynn discussed by Courtney Johnston on RNZ Audio arts 19 December 2018