The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery to Survey Works by Filmmaker Vincent Ward

Written by Francis Garston Sunday, 11 December 2011 22:24

New Plymouth, New Zealand.- The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery is proud to present "Vincent Ward: Breath - The Fleeting Intensity of Life" on view at the gallery from December 10th through Feburary 26th 2012. Vincent Ward’s memorable filmic work has long offered a powerful and unique contribution to Aotearoa New Zealand’s visual experience.This new exhibition Breath – the fleeting intensity of life draws together Ward’s career as a feature filmmaker and his early training in fine arts. His recent exploration of the still image presents works that coalesce photography, painting and digital imaging alongside filmic vignettes and sound. Ward’s ongoing concerns with metamorphosis, light, darkness and immersive experience has led him to create a series of physically imposing works that delve into otherworldly landscapes and transcendent states, seeking elusive ‘transformational moments’ that connect with the human psyche. This exhibition is the first survey of filmmaker Vincent Ward’s work within an art museum context.

A publication with a commissioned essay by novelist Louis Nowra will accompany the exhibition. Vincent Ward is a filmmaker and painter who developed a unique aesthetic language for a ‘motion painting’ technique that won an academy award in 1999 for its application in the film What Dreams May Come. Ward originally trained as a painter, graduating with honours in Fine Arts from the University of Canterbury in 1980. It was through painting that he initially found his way into filmmaking. His films have seen recognition at both the Academy Awards and the Cannes Film Festival and have repeatedly received acclaim for their strong iconic imagery. The Boston Globe has called Ward ‘one of films great image-makers’. Ward says his films have been a starting point for fresh exploration in his new mixed media work. “Somewhere between the world of motion, film and painting I am currently working to find an alchemical marriage between these different media,” Ward says. “The exhibition conveys the concept of ‘wehi’, where fear and awe collide. It is a celebration of life’s intensity,” he says. Curator and Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Director Rhana Devenport says Vincent Ward has a strong association with Taranaki through his films Vigil and The River Queen and his executive producer role on the film The Last Samurai, so it is appropriate that his first contemporary art exhibition is held in the region. “Vincent Ward has evolved a powerful and haunting emotional and visual register within filmic worlds. His recent explorations with still images delve deeply into his abiding concerns with transcendence and acute moments of loss and discovery. This exhibition also presents an orchestrated installation of moving image and sound, distillations and meditations drawn from his own filmic language,” Ms Devenport says. The exhibition coincides with the publication of a new book "Making The Transformational Moment in Film – Unleashing the Power of the Image (with the films of Vincent Ward)". Written by Dan Fleming, it will be released worldwide by Michael Wiese Books, a US publisher specialising in books for filmmakers and screenwriters. Ward will later present his works at Auckland’s Gus Fisher Gallery and TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre in Pah Homestead from July 2012.


The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery is New Zealand's most courageous contemporary art museum and home to the collection of modernist filmmaker and kinetic sculptor Len Lye. Opening in 1970, the Govett-Brewster has been recognised as a pathfinder; relentlessly dedicated to generating new artist projects, exhibitions, publications, events and discussion that stimulate ideas, challenge preconceptions and enrich the imagination. Through her generous gift and subsequent bequest to the city, Monica Brewster (nee Govett) envisaged and established a museum of international standing to offer a window to the world in the coastal community of New Plymouth in Taranaki on New Zealand's west coast. Since 1980 the Govett-Brewster has been the guardian of the Len Lye Collection and Archive, presented and cared for in partnership with the Len Lye Foundation and the New Zealand Film Archive. Experimental filmmaker, kinetic sculptor, painter and poet, New Zealand born Len Lye (1901-1980) was an intensely creative figure whose vibrant ‘direct’ films, made without a camera, are increasingly recognised as pioneering contributions to the history of moving image. The Govett-Brewster is dedicated to offering exceptional opportunities for artists and audiences both within the Gallery and beyond its walls. Distinctive exhibitions and residency programmes – presented through four seasonal suites annually – include the commissioning of new and site-specific projects by national and international artists. The Govett-Brewster Collection is a significant and continuously expanding collection of contemporary and modern art. The Collection registers recent directions within a wider story of contemporary visual arts in New Zealand, the Pacific and internationally. The Govett-Brewster offers fresh avenues for communication about the art and ideas of its time spanning conversation, workshops, tours, films, performances, music and events to inspire and engage people. In 2009 the Govett-Brewster was honoured in receiving The Arts Foundation of New Zealand Governors' Award. The Award acknowledges an individual or an institution that has significantly contributed to the arts in New Zealand, only three have been awarded to date.  In making their selection, Arts Foundation Governors acknowledged the singular commitment by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth to the cause of contemporary art, particularly from Aotearoa New Zealand, over the last four decades. Governors noted that the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery has unswervingly followed a path of presenting leading edge contemporary art from the outset, and that a succession of able directors has brought to New Plymouth a programme that one might more readily have expected in one of New Zealand's larger cities. The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery has set a benchmark for commitment to the "new." Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.govettbrewster.com

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