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Lot #22 - Trevor Moffitt

  • Auction House:
    Mossgreen-Webb's
  • Sale Name:
    Important Paintings & Contemporary Art
  • Sale Date:
    29 Nov 2017 ~ 6.30pm (New Zealand Daylight Time)
  • Lot #:
    22
  • Lot Description:
    Trevor Moffitt
    Pte Gilbert Moffitt
    oil on board, 1979
    450mm x 355mm
    signed Moffitt and dated 79 in brushpoint lower right, inscribed NO16, "Pte Gilbert Moffitt" oil $180 in oil stick verso, original Elva Bett Gallery, Wellington stamp applied verso
    NOTE: This painting was one of the first of Trevor Moffitt’s seminal series My Father’s Life and is mentioned in the following text: ‘The first part of the series was not released until later in 1979, but a small glimpse was seen in March at the “New Work from the South” exhibition at the Brooke/Gifford Gallery."(1) John Coley writing in the Christchurch Star commented: "Pte Gilbert Moffitt from a new series….. It is refreshing to see the shape of the Kiwi lemon squeezer hat of World War I among the abstract works that make up much of the show. It takes character to strike out so strongly against the current of the international style and Moffitt’s figurative, realistic paintings arising out of his personal observation and experience do just that." (2) 1.Chris Ronayne, Trevor Moffitt, (Auckland: David Ling Publishing, 2006), p.100. 2. John Coley, Christchurch Star, 14/03/79.
  • Exhibited:
    New Work from the South, Brooke/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, March 1979. (My Fatherâ's Life), Elva Bett Gallery, Wellington, August 1979.
  • Notes:
    ESSAY: Trevor Moffitt’s landscapes and scenes of domestic life are odes to the working class, to manual labourers and soldiers, and to families. His paintings feel deeply familiar — as New Zealanders, we innately know and identify with these themes. At the same time, they are tinged with a sense of collective nostalgia, offering a snapshot of what it was to grow up in the postwar epoch. From the time he first started painting in the 1950s, Moffitt evolved his practicethrough a number of series-based explorations. In the 1970s, one of the most fundamental and intimate subjects for the artist finally came to fruition: that of his own father, Gilbert (Bert), the series known as My Father’s Life. This was Moffitt’s largest series, over 140 paintings were created over a three-year period and were exhibited in stages at Elva Bett Gallery, Wellington and Brooke/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch. Moffitt’s relationship with his father had been difficult. Gilbert’s early life experiences, fighting in World War Ι as a teenager and growing up in rural Southland, meant that he was late to fatherhood, having his first child at age 40. These experiences led to a strained relationship with the young Trevor who was too young to appreciate the traumas his father would have experienced during the war. When Gilbert insisted that 15-year-old Trevor leave school to pursue a trade, the two came to blows. Trevor’s unwillingness to follow this vocational path and his desire to pursue a career as an artist caused a further rift between father and son. The decision to address their fraught relationship through his art is evidence of how, for Moffitt, paint served as a means of addressing the loss of his father and discovering the person Gilbert was before fatherhood. The images of war from this series are by far the most poignant and powerful when compared to other works in the series which featured more mundane images of daily life in rural New Zealand; images that were common place in the first half of the 20th century. By definition, therefore, works such as Pte Gilbert Moffitt are both fraught and tender. This painting carries the weight of a family photograph and presents as the headshot of a beloved soldier. Remarkable clarity of colour and formal resolution draw the viewer to Gilbert’s eyes and the slight furrow of anxiety creasing his brow. At the same time, as a portrait of the artist’s father, this work possesses a universality of spirit, which seems to suggest to us: here is a portrait of every father, and every soldier. Erwin Panofsky described the role of portraiture as that of seeking “to bring out whatever the sitter has in common with the rest of humanity”. This certainly speaks to the depth of Moffitt’s work and to the intimate and resonating experience this fine painting has to offer. Rachael Kleinsman
  • Estimate:
    NZ$16,000 - 25,000
  • Realised Price:
    *****

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  • Category:
    Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.



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