Director's Foreword - 'Katherine Mansfield: A Portrait' exhibition catalogue

Katherine Mansfield wearing an Arabian shawl, Rottingdean, Sussex, England. 
Ref: 1/4-010047-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.

For some, Katherine Mansfield: A Portrait will be a celebration of the importance of Katherine Mansfield’s legacy, while for others it will be a revelation as to just how far and wide Mansfield’s influence has spread. Despite her short life and relatively small collection of modern short stories, the wealth of scholarly and creative output produced in response and homage to Mansfield seems unending. Her legacy has given rise to local and international societies and symposia, panel discussions and birthday celebrations, pilgrimages, museums, collections, memorial reading rooms and gardens, festivals, memorabilia, awards, fellowships and residencies. Her influence has extended well beyond the literary; inspiring plays, films, television, musical compositions, ballet, opera, cartoons, stamps, and works of art—the latter forming the substance of this exhibition.

While her name is well known, what may be surprising is how deep our collective fascination runs. Every aspect of Mansfield’s life—her relationships, her struggles, her travels and the ultimate tragedy of her early death—has been tilled over; every element of her creations and appearance, dissected; her letters and last remaining possessions, hoarded and treasured. Mansfield fans are numerous and growing, marking their admiration and affinity by affectionately referring to the writer as KM.

In spite or because of this obsession, who Mansfield really was and her standing in New Zealand remains slippery. New perspectives and different takes promise insights, although every view is always partial and distorted through the complexity and distance of our own contemporary concerns. She is celebrated both as an icon of nonconformity and of international success. She has come to personify our anxiety over our global reputation as well as our growing confidence that significant creative works can be from here, about here and by us. She is drawn into our conversations on sexual identity and fluidity, cross cultural exchange and modernity. She is a subject and author of lasting intrigue and the artworks in this exhibition offer fresh glimpses to pique the curiosity of fans and newcomers seeking to uncover their own version of KM.

Published by the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata on the occasion of the exhibition Katherine Mansfield: A Portrait 2 August – 22 October 2018. ISBN: 978-0-473-44558-4

Director's Foreword - Adam Portraiture Award 2018

"Art is not sport. No one can properly win at art" — Miranda Sawyer, Why I love the Turner Prize 

Who wins an art prize depends as much on who is making the decision, their cultural context and references, and their taste, as it does on the artist and their work. The judge of the 2018 Adam Portraiture Award is Angus Trumble, Director of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia. The Award was founded in 2000, supported by the Adam Foundation from 2002, and is hosted biennially by the New Zealand Portrait Gallery. It has always had an invited international judge – an attempt to bring a degree of impartiality and external objectivity to what is inherently a subjective choice.

From a list of 278 digital images, Trumble selected a shortlist of 50 artworks for the exhibition at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery and toured to galleries across the country. Final judging happens in situ—mere days before the first opening—where the scale, materiality and contextual information surrounding the artwork can be considered in the flesh. Whatever the limitations of this system (and all systems have their limits) it is a process that allows artists working all over the country and at different stages of their career to be considered for New Zealand’s premier portraiture prize of $20,000. The previous winners are: Andre Brönnimann, Henry Christian Slane, Stephen Martyn Welch, Harriet Bright, Irene Ferguson, Freeman White, Ryuzo Nishida and Marianne Muggeridge.

While history will ultimately have the final say on merit, the Adam Portraiture Award highlights the power of portraiture, raises the profile and engagement with the genre of portraiture, and celebrates New Zealanders and the painters who represent them. It demonstrates that depictions of people continue to have the power to captivate us, irrespective of the flexing and fluxing of styles in contemporary image making. We love to look at images of people, be that people we love, people we judge, people we remember, people we admire, and even people we know nothing about, yet.

Published by the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata on the occasion of The Adam Portraiture Award 2018, 28 February – 27 May 2018. ISBN: 978-0-473-42882-2