Between the Lives: Partners in Art

257 Pages·2005·5.46 MB·English

by  Deborah Shepard

BETWEEN THE LIVES
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Between the Lives
PARTNERS IN ART
Edited by Deborah Shepard
AUCKLAND
UNIVERSITY PRESS
First published 2005
Auckland University Press
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland
New Zealand
www.auckland.ac.nz/aup
© The contributors, 2005
isbn 1 86940 333 9
National Library of New Zealand Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Between the lives : partners in art / edited by Deborah Shepard.
Includes index.
isbn 1-86940-333-9
1. Artist couples—New Zealand—Biography. 2. Artists
—New Zealand—Biography. I. Shepherd, Deborah.
709.22—dc 22
Publication is assisted by
This book is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study,
research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be
reproduced by any process without prior permission of the publisher.
Cover design: Christine Hansen
Printed by Brebner Print Ltd, Auckland
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction
Deborah Shepard 1
Portrait of a Marriage: Toss & Edith Woollaston
Jill Trevelyan 17
‘I did not want to be Mrs Colin’: Anne & Colin McCahon
Linda Tyler 31
‘Sinfonia Domestica’: Mary Stanley & Kendrick Smithyman
Peter Simpson 55
Captured in Words and Paint:
The life together of Frances Hodgkins & D. K. Richmond
Joanne Drayton 89
Shadow Play: The flm-making partnership of Rudall & Ramai Hayward
Deborah Shepard 113
‘Nobody would have given tuppence for our chances’:

James K. Baxter & J. C. Sturm
Paul Millar 137
Pictures and Politics: Pat & Gil Hanly
Claudia Bell 167
‘My way is to be with you’: Meg & Alistair Te Ariki Campbell
Joy MacKenzie 187
Symbiosis: Sylvia & Peter Siddell
Catherine Lane West-Newman 211
Notes 229
Index 243
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Between the Lives has been generously supported by two grants from Creative New
Zealand. The frst grant provided funding for the writers and more than that it
offered essential institutional support that said this book was worth pursuing, at
an early and vulnerable stage of the publishing process. The second came in the
form of a publisher’s grant towards the reproduction of illustrations.
I appreciated the initial support and gentle enthusiasm of my frst publisher
Ian Watts when this book was merely an exciting idea waiting to take off. And I
thank Elizabeth Caffn and the board at Auckland University Press for accepting
my proposal and patiently waiting as the book very slowly and painstakingly took
shape. I admire the splendid input of a talented group of specialist writers: Jill
Trevelyan, Linda Tyler, Peter Simpson, Joanne Drayton, Paul Millar, Claudia Bell,
Joy MacKenzie and Catherine Lane West-Newman. Each writer has responded
with fair and imagination to the challenge inherent in a themed approach to
the study of some of our great artists. They have fulflled my early hopes for a
collection of writing based on sound scholarship balanced with lyrical storytelling
and dramatic style.
The co-operation of the artists and their families was crucial to the success
of this collection. I am deeply grateful to: Ramai Hayward, Jacquie Sturm, Pat
and Gil Hanly, Meg and Alistair Campbell, and Sylvia and Peter Siddell for their
generosity and courage in agreeing to participate in and part with these versions
of their lives. I also thank the Woollaston family, the McCahon family and the
Smithyman family for their endorsement of the chapters on their parents.
Special thanks to Marti Friedlander who gave permission to reproduce the
beautifully evocative, romantic portrait photograph of Pat and Gil Hanly on
the cover of this book. I also thank photographer Barry Millar for allowing
vii
viii Acknowledgements
me to illustrate my introduction with a special photograph of Colin and Anne
McCahon, one that captures a uniquely tender moment between the famous
artist and his talented artist partner.
I thank the following individuals for sharing information and expertise:
Roger Horrocks; Mairi Gunn; Neil Roberts, Senior Curator, Christchurch Art
Gallery; Tricia Glensor, Publisher, School Journal; Tina Delceg, Craig Potton
Publishing; Kate Roberts, Govett Brewster Gallery; Geoffrey Heath, Auckland
Art Gallery; and Warren Brumby. Special thanks to the following friends and
supporters who personally cheered me on through the twists and turns of a
labyrinthine process: Jo Drayton, Claire Cartwright, Andrew Duncan, John
Pule, Sofa Tekela-Smith, Sarah Elsby, Jan McIntosh, Georgina Cox and the loyal
members of my writers’ group: Jane Bissell, Fredrika van Elburg, Anne Ruthe
and Jocelyn Watkin. I thank my family, Leona Fay, Jen Margaret and Natalie
Lofts. I owe my deepest gratitude to my partner Julian Lofts for his enduring
love and his fnancial support. Without this input, which eventually allowed me
to work full time on the project, there would have been no book. I thank my
children Cleo and Felix for their forbearance and for providing the light patches,
the welcome diversions that kept my feet on the ground throughout a supremely
challenging project.
The chapter writers extend their thanks to the following people:
Jill Trevelyan: to Philip Woollaston and the Toss Woollaston Trust.
Linda Tyler: to Gordon Brown, Victoria Carr, Catherine Douglas, Annette Facer,
Marjorie Fraser.
Peter Simpson: to Margaret Edgcumbe, Alexandra Smithyman and Bernard
Stanley for permission to use copyright material and other generous assistance.
Jo Drayton: to the private owner who very kindly gave permission to reproduce
Autumn in the Square, and also the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, the Auckland
Art Gallery, Ferner Galleries, E. H. McCormick Research Library and Alexander
Turnbull Library for their true generosity in giving access to material, and
permission to reproduce images often without cost.
Deborah Shepard: frst and foremost to Ramai Hayward who over the years
since 1990, when I frst began researching the Hayward flm-making, has treated
me to hours of entertaining and informative story-telling about a very rich
partnership; to the late Jonathan Dennis and to Neill Boak, Diane and Alton
Francis, Tom Newnham, Vapi Kupenga, the staff at the New Zealand Film
Archive, especially Diane Pivac and Lissa Mitchell, and to Michael Brook at
the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Film Archive, Clive Sowry and staff
Acknowledgements ix
at Archives New Zealand and especially to Helene Connor for her thoughtful
reading of the text.
Paul Millar: to Jacquie Baxter for her willingness to discuss her personal life
so frankly and for her valuable comments on the early draft of this chapter.
Thanks also to Bruce Morrison of Morrison Grieve for sending me the complete
transcripts of the interviews conducted during the making of the documentary
Road to Jerusalem.
Claudia Bell: acknowledges the support of the Hanly family and John Lyall in
writing this chapter.
Joy MacKenzie: to Meg and Alistair Campbell for their honesty and generosity,
for always being willing to answer all my queries without once making me feel
like a sticky beak or voyeur and for having the courage to share the personal
details of their lives, the raw material of their art. I would also like to thank
Aorewa McLeod for her support and enthusiasm while she was supervising my
MA thesis: ‘Facing Our Terrible Gods: The Personal Poetry of Meg Campbell’,
out of which this chapter sprang.
Lane West-Newman: The voices of Sylvia and Peter Siddell reproduced in this
essay come essentially from our extended conversations over several years. I am
grateful to them for their generosity of time and thought and to Peter for his
technical skill in producing the illustrations. Thanks also to Deborah Shepard,
for use of some material from her interview with them in May 2003.
Finally the writers and I would like to thank Elizabeth Caffn, Annie Irving,
Katrina Duncan and Christine O’Brien at Auckland University Press for their
skill and expertise in transforming a wonderful collection of essays into a
stunning book; Christine Hansen for her stylish cover design; and Jane Parkin
for her intelligent editing and warm support.
This book is dedicated to Pat Hanly who died as Between the Lives went into
production. His wife Gil believes he would have liked this gesture, as towards the
end of the interview for their chapter, he was asked if he had found the process
intrusive: ‘Not at all! Not at all,’ he replied. ‘The story needs to be told. Everyone’s
story needs to be told.’