GROUP EXHIBITION

An early work by Albrecht pays homage to the beginnings of gestural abstraction in New Zealand. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Albrecht was one of very few artists working on a large scale and in a wholly abstract language of paint, but her mode of painting from the time continues to be topical. In 1986, Linda Gill summarised Albrecht’s approach to painting as involving “a ‘felt response’ to the world.” She added that “good painting” according to Albrecht, involved “the body as well as the mind,” which is born out in her work where “vigorous physical involvement is evident.”

Of course, the recognition of the importance of the physical act to abstract painting is not new, and, as early as 1943, Ad Reinhardt asserted that: “It is more difficult to write or talk about abstract painting than about any other painting because the content is not in a subject matter or story, but in the actual painting activity.” Placing an unequivocal premium on process and materiality, Reinhardt acknowledged that temporal, spatial, and physical facets are integral to abstraction. Indeed, the works in Drawing Rehearsals are uniquely representative of a specific moment, a specific action, and a specific intention on the part of the artist. The paintings are a celebration of boldness, confidence, and resolution. They are not the result of predetermined compositional structures, line weights or colour selections, rather they operate in the same open ended manner as working drawings.

They embrace intuition and spontaneity with Chung noting: “I follow my nose within the pursuit of the image which is elusive by nature.” However, throughout the painting process, each of the four artists are cognizant of having to critically reflect, assess, and evaluate the emerging piece in order for it to succeed. For Hartley Mills however, the critical review of works is carried out “at a later date when the particulars of the working session are forgotten.” In this way he celebrates “the continual flow of ideas” and preserves “the action of automatism.” Nevertheless, like Albrecht, Bushby, and Chung, Hartley Mills’ painting modality still hinges on the developing relationships between the drawn line and colour. It is these two elements that are largely responsible for negotiating the space of the canvas and conjuring sensations, textures, images and memories for both artist and viewer.