Richard John Frizzell (born 1943) is a New Zealand artist known for his pop art paintings and prints. His work often features

Kiwiana Kiwiana are certain items and icons from New Zealand's heritage, especially from around the middle of the 20th century, that are seen as representing iconic New Zealand elements. These "quirky things that contribute to a sense of nationhood" in ...

iconography combined with motifs from

Māori art Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

traditions, such as the

tiki In Māori mythology, Tiki is the first man created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne. He found the first woman, Marikoriko, in a pond; she seduced him and he became the father of Hine-kau-ataata. By extension, a tiki is a large or small wooden ...

and

tā moko ' is the permanent marking or "tattoo" as traditionally practised by Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. It is one of the five main Polynesian tattoo styles (the other four are Marquesan, Samoan, Tahitian and Hawaiian). (tattoois ...

. He is based in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. Frizzell does not stay within one particular style, and often adopts unfashionable painting styles. Thus, he can be compared to artists such as

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein (; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. Hi ...

, Paul Hartigan, Ian Scott, and

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

. Frizzell's best-known work uses as its base the "Four Square man", an

advertising character A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Ma ...

for the

Four Square Four square is a team sport played among two teams with two players each on a square court divided into four quadrants: A, B, C, and D (usually numbers 3, 4, 2, and 1, respectively, depending on the court.) The square that a player gets to befo ...

grocery chain. Frizzell is also responsible for the lithograph 'Mickey to Tiki, Tu Meke'. This has now become a best selling print in New Zealand. It portrays a cartoon '

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

' changing in stages to a '

.' This image is used on a popular tee-shirt, released by the

Christchurch Art Gallery The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, commonly known as the Christchurch Art Gallery, is the public art gallery of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It has its own substantial art collection and also presents a programme of New ...

. Frizzell has become a point of discussion on indigenous art and the misuse of symbols.

Career

International Literacy Day (15068363802)

Frizzell trained at the

Ilam School of Fine Arts The Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury was founded in 1882 as the Canterbury College School of Art. The school became a full department of the university in the 1950s, and was the first department to move to the suburban Ilam ...

of the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...

from 1960 to 1963, studying under artists such as Rudi Gopas and Russell Clark. After this he worked in advertising for many years, and it is through this that he gained his appreciation for the advertising characters he uses in his work. Frizzell's exhibition ''Tiki'' in November 1992 at Auckland's Gow Langsford Gallery aroused controversy for his series of paintings reworking the tiki image to resemble subjects as varied as

Casper the Friendly Ghost Casper the Friendly Ghost is the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. He is a pleasant, personable and translucent ghost, but often criticized by his three wicked uncles, the Ghostly Trio. T ...

and a

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

abstract. The major retrospective ''Dick Frizzell: Portrait of a Serious Artiste'' of 1997 also attracted some controversy, somewhat due to the inclusion of ''Grocer with Moko'' (1992). This contentious work depicted the Four Square man with facial

moko In the mythology of Mangaia in the Cook Islands, Moko is a wily character and grandfather of the heroic Ngaru. Moko is a ruler or king of the lizards, and he orders his lizard subjects to climb into the basket of the sky demon Amai-te-rangi Acco ...

, which offended some viewers. Frizzell became known for his use of Tiki in his works. One of his famous pieces 'Goofy Tiki Study' is now in the care of the

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions. Set be ...

. Goofy Tiki Study is a Gouache and pencil on paper work, that depicts a stylised hei tiki with large lettering proclaiming “Goofy Tiki”. The work responds to the wealth of ‘low’ art produced for tourism that can be found all throughout New Zealand, that appropriates and exploits Māori art imagery while ignoring the deeper symbolism and cultural significance. In this work Frizzell is creating a study for a series of ‘low’ art paintings he created to fill the so-called void in the art world at the time. The works created by Frizzell became highly commercialised and widely spread through New Zealand, which spearheaded a new wave of appropriation to occur as once again it became popular to commandeer Māori imagery with little regard to the culture behind it. Frizzell has contributed designs to Esther Diamond linen company, has released several varieties of "Frizzell Wines," and designed the cover and several illustrations for ''The Great New Zealand Songbook'' (2009). Frizzell wrote ''Dick Frizzell: The Painter'' (Random House NZ, 2009), with a foreword by art writer

Hamish Keith Hamish Henry Cordy Keith (born 15 August 1936) is a New Zealand writer, art curator, arts consultant and social commentator. Introduction Keith has been writing about and working with the arts in New Zealand for almost half a century. He has ...

. In 2012, he completed a series of paintings of poems by

Sam Hunt Sam Lowry Hunt (born December 8, 1984) is an American singer and songwriter. Born in Cedartown, Georgia, Hunt played football in his high school and college years and once attempted to pursue a professional sports career before signing with MCA ...

. At the opening of the exhibition of those paintings on 7 February 2012, Frizzell said that he and Hunt had, in their respective paintings and poems, committed the ultimate "sin", the "sin of being understood". Frizzell is represented by Gow Langsford Gallery in Auckland, the Central Art Gallery in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, and Milford Galleries in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

and Queenstown. In the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours, Frizzell was appointed a

Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have ren ...

, for services to the arts.

Photorealistic art

Though he is best known for his iconoclastic cartoon-derived work, Frizzell has a second string to his artistic bow as a painter of photorealistic landscapes and still lifes. His landscapes, often views of rural New Zealand as seen from narrow country roads, have been the subject of several exhibitions, among them ''Out of Alex'', at Dunedin's Milford Gallery in 2019.Out of Alex
" Milford Gallery, 5–29 October 2019. Retrieved 6 July 2020.

Personal life

Frizzell is a brother of politician

Steve Chadwick Stephanie Anne "Steve" Chadwick (née Frizzell, born 15 December 1948) is a New Zealand politician. She served as mayor of Rotorua from 2013 to 2022. She previously held the positions of Minister of Conservation, Women's Affairs, and Associat ...

. Frizzell has three children, including Josh Frizzell, a television and advertising director, and Otis Frizzell, an artist and half of hiphop music duo

Slave & Otis Mark James "Slave" Williams (born 1971) and Otis Frizzell (born 1971) are a New Zealand duo known as hip hop MCs and television and radio presenters. Together they are known for their musical work in the 1990s as MC OJ & Rhythm Slave and Joint ...

References

External links

Dick Frizzell
in the collection of the

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

Gow Langsford Gallery's Frizzell page

''Dick Frizzell to paint in Antarctica'', New Zealand Antarctic Institute (Jan 2005)

Janne Land Gallery, Wellington

Ferner Galleries

Milford Galleries

Black Barn Gallery

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frizzell, Dick 1943 births Living people 20th-century New Zealand painters 20th-century New Zealand male artists Ilam School of Fine Arts alumni Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit Pop artists