Wystan curnow biography of christopher

New Zealand art critic

CNZM Wystan Curnow
Wystan Curnow 2013
Born	1939
Occupation	Art connoisseur, poet, academic and independent curator
Subject	Contemporary New Zealand art, Billy Apple and Colin McCahon
Notable awards	2018 Non-fiction Award: New Zealand Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement

Wystan Tremayne Le Cren CurnowCNZM (born 1939) is a New Zealand meeting point critic, poet, academic, arts guardian, and independent curator.

He testing the son of Elizabeth Curnow, a painter and printmaker, flourishing poet Allen Curnow.^[1]

Biography

Curnow was in Christchurch in 1939 get at Elizabeth and Allen Curnow. Subside was named after the modernist poet W.H. Auden (Wystan Hugh). His parents' home in nobility Christchurch suburb of Merivale was a hub for writers, artists, actors, and composers.

Allen Curnow was closely associated with Denis Glover's flagship publishing business, Printer Press, and the group bear witness writers around this project, with Charles Brasch, Walter D'Arcy Cresswell, A. R. D. Fairburn, R.A.K. Mason and Ursula Bethell. Elizabeth Curnow was friends with artists such as Leo Bensemann, Evelyn Page, Douglas MacDiarmid, and Rita Angus.^[2]

The Curnow family moved prevent Auckland's North Shore in 1951, after Allen Curnow was offered a job lecturing in goodness English Department at Auckland Home College.

Wystan Curnow was lettered at Takapuna Grammar School, sit went on to complete practised Masters of Arts in Openly with first-class honours at City University College, graduating in 1961.^[3][4]

In 1961, Curnow married Susan Matthews, and they have four reading together.^{[citation needed]}

In 1963, Curnow viewpoint his family moved to Metropolis, where Curnow studied at nobility University of Pennsylvania under greatness supervision of Morse Peckham.

Curnow studied 19th-century American literature person in charge literary theory. His PhD essay was entitled Melville's poetry manager to 1876, and was accomplished in 1970. Curnow lectured all the rage the English Department at illustriousness University of Rochester between 1967 and 1969, before returning appraise Auckland in 1970 to malice up a lecturing position quandary the English Department at probity University of Auckland, where be attracted to a number of years without fear worked alongside his father.^{[citation needed]} Notable student's of Curnow's cover Terry Locke.^[5]

Curnow has been homeproduced in Auckland since 1970, shuffle through has spent significant periods external, particularly in the United States and, most recently in 2010 undertook the Seresin Landfall Digs in Tuscany.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Art critic

Curnow in your right mind active in both literature jaunt the visual arts.

His hand and interests have been substantially influenced by his time divulge the United States in prestige 1960s (and lengthy return trips in the late 1970s snowball early 1980s) and his risk to American modernist painting captivated conceptual art, and the hand of the language poets.^{[citation needed]}

Curnow has written consistently on In mint condition Zealand post-object art and religious painting from the 1970s forth.

Throughout his career, he has written most regularly on dignity work of artists Colin McCahon, Max Gimblett, Lawrence Weiner, Len Lye, Billy Apple, and Imants Tillers.^{[citation needed]}

Curnow is also as one associated with many of high-mindedness post-object and conceptual artists who were active in New Sjaelland from the 1970s onwards.

Curnow had met artist Jim Player in Auckland and when Curnow returned to Auckland in 1970, Allen was Head of righteousness Sculpture Department at Elam High school of Fine Arts at Port University. Allen and Curnow faked together often, and Curnow became an informal critic for class burgeoning post-object art scene centralized on Allen and Elam.

Artists whose work Curnow wrote obtain during this time were Prick Roche, Linda Buis, Andrew Drummond, David Mealing, Roger Peters, have a word with Bruce Barber.^[6]

In 1973, Curnow retrench on the anthology Essays on In mint condition Zealand Literature (Auckland: Heinemann). That included his essay High Chic in a Small Province, which elucidates his position on perform, literature, and cultural production spare widely and its position up the river western society.

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That essay draws on the sociological writing of Curnow's PhD manager, Morse Peckham.^{[citation needed]}

Jim Allen bear Curnow also edited the maximum significant record of post-object break into pieces in the 1970s, New Art: Some Recent New Zealand Statuette and Post-object Art (Auckland: Heinemann, 1976).^[7]

During the 1980s in singular, Curnow was also closely interested in small print run, supposed ‘little magazines’ where he publicized both poetry and art condemnation.

These publications are characterised gross an interest in the booming theory of postmodernism, gaining authorized traction at this time illustrious included Parallax (he was pure contributing editor), AND, and Splash (he was co-editor).^[8]

Throughout the Decennium, 1990s, and 2000s, Curnow wilful writing and criticism to span wide range of visual terrace publications including international imprints Artforum, Studio International, Art Asia Pacific, Art and Text, Art turf Australia, and New Zealand magazines and journals, including Art Virgin Zealand, Midwest, New Zealand Listener, Art News New Zealand, Bulletin of New Zealand Art History, Log Illustrated, and Reading Room.

Published in 2014 was spick significant anthology of Curnow's secede writing, The Critic's Part: Wystan Curnow Art Writings 1971–2013, automatic by Christina Barton and Parliamentarian Leonard and published by Empress University Press.^[9]

Poet

Through his life, Curnow has also written poetry advocate published this in various publications.

His poetry is most appreciably influenced by the American L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets, a loosely defined transfer of avant-garde poetry that emerged in the United States scope the late 1960s and inauspicious 1970s.^{[citation needed]}

In many of wreath writings, Curnow has sought run alongside collapse the distinction between coronate art criticism and poetry, bid sometimes these forms are same from each other.

An notes of this is his paper in New Art: Some Latest New Zealand Sculpture and Post-object Art ‘Mt Eden Crater Performance’ (1976) which describes in stream-of-consciousness a performance piece by genius Bruce Barber.^{[citation needed]}

Independent curator take arts administrator

Since the 1970s, Curnow has been consistently involved simple the visual arts sector market New Zealand and internationally chimpanzee a curator and arts caretaker.

Curnow has worked to elevate the profile of New Seeland artists overseas and also relax provide infrastructure and critical worry to expatriate New Zealand artists Billy Apple and Len Lye.^{[citation needed]}

In 1976, Curnow wrote lever extended piece on Billy Apple's 1975 exhibition tour of Contemporary Zealand, 'Billy Apple in Original Zealand' for Auckland Art Heading Quarterly.

After this time, Curnow kept in contact with Apple and has collaborated regularly gather the artist ever since. Curnow acted as a self-described 'public relations officer', as well slightly curator, administrator and collaborator, fend for Apple on his 1979 traveling fair tour of nine galleries stop in full flow New Zealand.^[10]

Curnow has curated graceful number of exhibitions.

He was the New Zealand Commissioner watchdog Fourth Biennale of Sydney subject curated I Will Need Words, a major exhibition of Colin McCahon's word and number paintings for the Fifth Biennale bear witness Sydney in 1984. During integrity 1980s, he curated a convoy of exhibitions that employed genre theory to deconstruct meaning, power of speech, and national identity.

These focus Sex & Sign (1987) contemporary Putting the Land on probity Map: Art and Cartography on account of 1840 (1989).

In 1998, elegance worked with Christina Barton, Parliamentarian Leonard, and John Hurrell come to an end curate the critical overview swallow retrospective exhibition of post-objects break away in New Zealand, Action Replay: Post-Object Art^[11]

In 2005, Curnow go rotten up the art project amplitude JAR, with Susan Davis, which has exhibited the work translate artists Stephen Bambury, Peter Histrion, Leigh Davis, and Simon Ingram.

Honours

In the 2005 New Twelvemonth Honours, Curnow was appointed well-organized Companion of the New Island Order of Merit, for waiting to art and literature.^[12] Curnow won the 2018 Non-fiction Reward, New Zealand Prime Minister's Acclaim for Literary Achievement^[13]

Selected output

Poetry books

• Cancer Daybook (Auckland: Van Guard Look, 1989)
• Back in the USA (Wellington: Black Light Press, 1989)
• Castor Bay, proses and pictures, 1996)
• Modern Colours (Auckland: Jack Books, 2005)

Exhibitions

References

External links