Alexis Jan Atthill Hunter (4 November 1948 – 24 February 2014) was a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

painter and photographer, who used

feminist theory Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and femin ...

in her work.Gifford, Adam
"Feminist art buys a fight"
''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspaper ...

'', 4 April 2007. Retrieved 26 February 2008. She lived and worked in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

UK, and Beaurainville France. Hunter was also a member of the

Stuckism Stuckism () is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art."Alexis Hunter"
stuckism.com. Retrieved 10 March 2008. Her archive and artistic legacy is now administered by th
Alexis Hunter Trust

Early life

Hunter's parents emigrated to New Zealand from Sydney in 1947, and she was born in Epsom,

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

. Her twin sister is the printmaker and photographer

Alyson Hunter Alyson Hunter (born 1948) is a New Zealand photographer and print maker, resident in London, who, during the 1970s and 1980s, employed an unusual technique of etching with a chemically modified photographic image.Titirangi Titirangi is a suburb of West Auckland in the Waitākere Ranges local board area of the city of Auckland in northern New Zealand. It is an affluent, residential suburb located 13 kilometres (8 miles) to the southwest of the Auckland city centre ...

in the Waitākere Ranges in Auckland.

Education and career

From 1966 to 1969, Hunter studied at

Elam School of Fine Arts The Elam School of Fine Arts, founded by John Edward Elam, is part of the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries at the University of Auckland. Students study degrees in fine art with an emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach. The schoo ...

, where she was influenced by a tutor

Colin McCahon Colin John McCahon (; 1August 191927May 1987) was a prominent New Zealand artist whose work over 45 years consisted of various styles, including landscape, figuration, abstraction, and the overlay of painted text. Along with Toss Woollaston an ...

's ethics that the artist has responsibility as a member of society. In 1970, she lived in a commune in Cairns. In 1971, she completed a teaching diploma in art and history.Buckman, David, ''Dictionary of Artists in Britain since 1945'', p. 790. Art Dictionaries, Bristol, 2006. In 1972 she moved to London and worked in film animation. She was a member of the Women's Workshop of the Artists Union (1972–1975) and the Woman's Free Arts Alliance. She has said that during this time of her feminist stance, "We were ridiculed in the press. We couldn't get work", and that she also found it difficult to get photo labs to print her work. She started to study European tattoos, after listening to a lecture at the Royal Academy, which described them in a belittling way; she said, "I was angry because I know from New Zealand culture that tattooing was a very important part of Maori social structure." She took photos in the street of men with tattoos and received sexist accusations, which she rejected. She used the image of hands in her work. A series, ''Approach to Fear II: Change – Decisive Action'' (1977), depicts red nail varnish being taken off and fingernails being cut with a razor blade.Battista, Kathy
"Alexis Hunter"
, ''

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

'', March 2007. Retrieved 26 February 2008. ''Sexual Warfare'' (1975) is a grid of photographs with text, where her own hands show different methods of killing a male partner, such as a pair of scissors being clutched and the text "Castrate, dedicated to Delilah". Threat and humour combine, and the word "Compete" is hand with the book, ''How to Make it in a Man's World''. Images in the series, ''The Marxist Housewife (Still Does the Housework)'' (1978), show a manicured hand cleaning a poster of

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

, referencing both class issues and Marx's lack of recognition of domestic labour in his writing. The series ''Identity Crisis'' consists of six photographs of Hunter, each taken by a different person over a two-week period, showing how they saw her, ranging from the feminity of wearing a pearl necklace to a defiant stance wearing a

hard hat A hard hat is a type of helmet predominantly used in workplace environments such as industrial or construction sites to protect the head from injury due to falling objects, impact with other objects, debris, rain, and electric shock. Suspensio ...

. She also photographed men, in common with feminist practice of the 1970s, to reverse the traditional position of men's visualization of women - 'the

male gaze In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world in the visual arts and in literature from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heteros ...

'. Her ''Sexual Rapport'' series (1972–1976) consists of image of men, whom she had photographed in the street in

Hoxton Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England. As a part of Shoreditch, it is often considered to be part of the East End – the historic core of wider East London. It was historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. It li ...

, London and

Little Italy Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian culture. There are ...

in New York: they include workers on lunch break and policemen, who are shown in a friendly and good-natured fashion. Hunter then marked the photographs, "Yes", "No" or "Maybe", to indicate the level of sexual rapport she felt existed with the subjects. In 1978 her photographic exhibition ''Approaches to Fear'' was staged by Sarah Kent, who was then Exhibitions Director at the

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

in London.Buck, Louisa (2000). ''Moving Targets 2: A User's Guide to British Art Now''. Tate Gallery Publishing. That year she showed at the Hayward Annual, in 1979 at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, and in 1981 at the ''Summer Show 2'' at the Serpentine Gallery, London. She was included in ''Contemporary Acquisitions'' ( The Imperial War Museum, London, 1981), ''Mythic Landscapes and Memory Series'' (Totah Gallery, New York, 1984), ''Whitechapel Open'' (

Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...

, London, 1987), '' Alter/Image: Feminism and Representation in New Zealand Art 1973-1993'' (

City Gallery Wellington City Gallery Te Whare Toi is a public art gallery in Wellington, New Zealand. History City Gallery Te Whare Toi began its life as the Wellington City Art Gallery on 23 September 1980 in a former office block located at 65 Victoria Street, now ...

and Auckland Art Gallery, 1993–1994), ''Fantasy'' (Touring:

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, 1994), and ''Technomyths'' (Whitespace Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, 2002). She showed work in group shows at the Stuckism International Gallery in 2003. In an interview with Lisa Sabbage, she explained how she returned to painting in the early 1980s to explore the political difficulties of the medium, using it to examine psychology and fantasy from a feminist perspective. A revival of interest in early feminist art led her in 2007 to stage a show of older work, ''Alexis Hunter: Radical Feminism in the 1970s'', shown at the Norwich Gallery, England, and at the Whitespace Gallery in New Zealand. Kathy Battista in

Frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

said the show, "situated her practice as an important contribution to Britain's feminist movement within the visual arts." Hunter said: The black-and-white image used for the exhibition catalogue cover from her 1970s ''Sexual Rapport'' series, showed a man's bare torso, wearing leather trousers, with the twin towers of the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

in the background as the "ultimate phallic symbols", while he holds a smoking cigarette at the level of his penis. The image sums up her "combination of intellectual inquiry into desire and subjectivity, but handled with tongue-in-cheek humour and ease." In 2007, her work was also included in ''

WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution ''WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution'' was an exhibition of international women's art presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles from March 4–July 16, 2007. It later traveled to PS1 Contemporary Art Center, where it was on vie ...

'' Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Los Angeles, and the Stuckist show, ''I Won't Have Sex with You as long as We're Married'', at the A Gallery in London. In 2008, she founded the Camden Stuckist group in Camden,

. In 2013 her work Approach to Fear XIII: Pain – Destruction of Cause 1977 was purchased by the Tate Gallery. She lectured at art schools in the United Kingdom and other countries and in 1986 was visiting Associate Professor of Painting and Photography at

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the university in Texas with over 47,000 students. Its campus, which is primarily in s ...

, Texas.

Personal life

Hunter was married to ex-rugby player Baxter Mitchell, who owned The Falcon Theatre and Jazz Bar in Camden, which supported independent bands such as Blur in the 1980s.

Legacy

The reputation of Alexis Hunter has continued to grow since her death in 2014 through a series of exhibitions and public purchases: 2016 - exhibition at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The Model’s Revenge 2018 - exhibition with publication at

Goldsmiths A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold. In German, the Goldsmith family name is written Goldschmidt. Goldsmith may also refer to: Places * Goldsmith, Indiana, United States * Goldsmith, New York, United States, a h ...

, University of London Sexual Warfare 2020 - two-part exhibition a
Richard Saltoun Gallery
Alexis Hunter: money, art, sex - part 1 ‘A Goddess Confronting Patriarchy’; part 2 ‘Callisto’ 2021 - purchase by the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

Approach to Fear XVII - ten photographs mounted in two rows on two boards 2022 exhibitio
The Margate School
ref> Passionate Instincts: paintings and boards from New Zealand days 1976 - 1988

Work in collections

Hunter's work is represented in the

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is part of the National Galleries of Scotland, which are based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The National Gallery of Modern Art houses the collection of modern and contemporary art dating from about 1900 to th ...

, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa,

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate ...

and the Arts Council of Great Britain collections.

General references

*Allmer, Patricia (2015) ‘Alexis Hunter’, in ''The Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970'', ed. Gabriele Schor, SAMMLUNG VERBUND, Vienna/Hamburger Kunsthalle.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Alexis 1948 births 2014 deaths Deaths from motor neuron disease New Zealand feminists New Zealand painters New Zealand photographers Contemporary painters Stuckism New Zealand women photographers Elam Art School alumni 20th-century New Zealand women artists 20th-century women photographers