Joanna Margaret Paul (14 December 1945 – 29 May 2003) was a New Zealand visual artist, poet and film-maker.
Early life and education
Paul was one of four daughters of pioneering New Zealand publisher
Blackwood Paul and artist and writer
Janet Paul.
Paul attended
Samuel Marsden Collegiate School
Samuel Marsden Collegiate School is a private composite girls school located in the Wellington suburb of Karori in New Zealand. It has a socio-economic decile of 10 - on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 reflecting the lowest socioeconomic communities - ...
from 1959 until 1962, then the
University of Waikato
, mottoeng = For The People
, established = 1964; years ago
, endowment = (31 December 2021)
, budget = NZD $263.6 million (31 December 2020)
, chancellor = Sir Anand Satyanand, GNZM, QSO, KStJ
, vice_chancellor = Neil Quigley
, cit ...
in 1963, studying history, French and English. In 1964, she travelled to London with her family for a year, studying at the Sir John Cass School. On returning to New Zealand, she completed a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
degree at the
University of Auckland
, mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work
, established = 1883; years ago
, endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021)
, budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021)
, chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant
, vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...
in 1968; in 1967 she enrolled 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 ...
, studying under teachers such as
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 ...
,
Greer Twiss
Greer Lascelles Twiss (born 23 June 1937) is a New Zealand sculptor, and in 2011 was the recipient of an Icon Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, limited to 20 living art-makers.
Career
Twiss was born in Auckland on 23 June 1937, ...
and Tom Hutchins, and alongside fellow students
Christine Hellyar,
Marte Szirmay and
Leon Narbey
Leon Gordon Alexander Narbey (born 2 August 1947) is a New Zealand cinematographer.
Born in Helensville, Narbey was educated at the Elam School of Fine Arts, specialising in sculpture. Married Anita Janske Narbey (1944 - 2019) in 1966 and they h ...
. She graduated with a Diploma of Fine Arts in 1969.
Career and family
After graduating from Elam Paul moved to
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 ...
, where in 1971 she married fellow artist
Jeffrey Harris.
In 1973 Paul and Harris spent a year in Wellington, where their first daughter was born; in 1976 a second daughter was born, who died of a heart defect at the age of eight months.
A son was born in 1978 and a fourth child in 1982. Art historian
Jill Trevelyan notes that 'Although Paul faced practical difficulties in reconciling the roles of mother and artist, she refused to see them as mutually exclusive. ... Paul was able to turn her domestic situation to her own advantage in her art, as her many tender and exquisite studies of her children attest.'
Paul's first solo exhibition was held in 1968.
In 1975 she was included in the exhibition ''Six Women Artists'' in Christchurch. In the publication accompanying the exhibition she stated:
As a woman painting is not a job, not even a vocation. It is a part of life, subject to the strains, and joys, of domestic life. ... Painting for me as a woman is an ordinary act – about the great meaning in ordinary things.
In 1977, she developed a project called ''A Season's Diaries'' in Wellington, which connected a number of female artists including
Heather McPherson,
Allie Eagle
Allie Eagle (9 January 1949 – 25 May 2022) was a New Zealand artist whose work in the 1970s was key to the development of feminist art practice in New Zealand. She was the subject of the 2004 documentary ''Allie Eagle and Me''. She identified he ...
, Gladys Gurney (also known as Saj Gurney), Anna Keir, Birdie Lonie and Marian Evans. It was this project that led Marian Evans, Anna Keir and Bridie Lonie to create the
Women's Gallery, which ran from 1980 till 1984, and which featured work by Paul in a number of its exhibitions.
In 1983 Paul received the
Frances Hodgkins Fellowship at the
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 ...
. The following year, after the end of her marriage, she moved briefly to Wellington and then settled in
Whanganui
Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whang ...
, where she lived for the rest of her life, not discounting time spent working in various New Zealand cities, including a year in Wellington when she held the
Rita Angus Residency
The Rita Angus Residency in Wellington, New Zealand, is an opportunity for artists to live in the former home of Rita Angus, one of New Zealand’s best-known painters, while creating a body of new work.
About the Residency
The Rita Angus Cottage ...
in 1993.
The first major survey of Paul's work was shown at the
Sarjeant Art Gallery in 1989.
In 2003 Paul collapsed while bathing in a thermal pool in the Polynesian Spas in Rotorua. She died in hospital two days later. Jill Trevelyan writes 'An inventory of her studio revealed some 5000 artworks, many of which had never been exhibited, drawings, photographs and films. She also left a body of work as a poet and prose writer, including a wealth of published material.'
Paul's obituary in the New Zealand journal ''Art New Zealand'' noted that 'she worked for love-not for money, neither for status nor fame. And so, during her public life as an artist – just on 34 years – Paul existed on the margins of the art world: where she lived, how she practised, and what she believed in.'
The obituary also commented on the range of her work and interests: 'painting and drawing, photography, film-making, poetry, publishing, architectural history and critical writing, as well as related commitment to the women's movement, human rights, building preservation, environmental protection and a fierce opposition to laissez-faire genetic engineering.'
Photographic historian Peter Ireland, writing on an exhibition of Paul's photographs in 2013, noted
Apart from a few dedicated collectors her work was never much sought after, and for several reasons. It was usually small, often on paper and domestically related. She worked across a range of mediums – painting, drawing, photography, film, poetry, publishing – and in the market’s view that’s not versatility but a perceived lack of focus. And she was her own worst enemy in terms of promotion. Although she exhibited regularly she shied away from any promotional endeavour, and, typically perversely, seemed to actively discourage it.
Legacy
A tribute exhibition, ''Beauty, Even'', was organised by the City Gallery Wellington the following year and toured to other North Island locations.
A survey focused on her drawings was organised by the Mahara Gallery on the Kapiti Coast in 2006 and also toured.
The
Hocken Collections
Hocken Collections (, formerly the Hocken Library) is a research library, historical archive, and art gallery based in Dunedin, New Zealand. Its library collection, which is of national significance, is administered by the University of Otago.
T ...
at the
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 ...
staged an exhibition of Paul's work paired with poet
Cilla McQueen
Priscilla Muriel McQueen (born 22 January 1949 in Birmingham, England) is a poet and three-time winner of the ''New Zealand Book Award'' for Poetry.
Early years and education
McQueen's family moved to New Zealand when she was four.
She was educ ...
, ''Picture/Poem: imagery of Cilla McQueen & Joanna Paul'' in 2015. The exhibitions focused on works produced in the 1970s and 1980s when the two were resident in Dunedin; most of the works by Paul were drawn from the Hocken's collections.
In early 2015, three of Paul's films featured in a two person exhibition with contemporary artist Ziggy Lever commissioned by Ramp Gallery Hamilton. Curated by Paula Booker and titled 'Thinking Feeling' the moving image exhibition considered the affective dimension of Paul's detailed and often dream-like non-narrative film works. The exhibition occasioned an eponymous catalogue by Ramp Press and also travelled to The Physics Room Contemporary Art Space, Christchurch.
In 2015 Solomon Nagler and Mark Williams curated ''Six Artists respond to the work of Joanna Margaret Paul'', a collection of short films responding to Paul's poems, by artists Nova Paul, Rachel Shearer,
Sonya Lacey, Miranda Parkes,
Shannon Te Ao and the collective Popular Productions. This programme of work was screened at the Artists' Moving Image Programme of the BFI London Film Festival 2015, where curator Mark Williams also gave presentation about Paul's practice.
Paul's work was included in ''Fragments of a World: Artists Working in Film and Photography 1973–1987'', curated in 2015 by Dr Sandy Callister for the
Adam Art Gallery. The exhibition brought together the work of artists (Paul,
Alexis Hunter,
Jane Campion
Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films ''The Piano'' (1993) and '' The Power of the Dog'' (2021), for which she has received a tot ...
, Rhonnda Bosworth, Minerva Betts, Popular Productions and Janet Bayly) who early in their careers explored photography and film, from a feminist perspective. The exhibition travelled to Michael Lett Gallery in Auckland in 2016.
In December 2016 film maker and curator Peter Todd, presented a screening of her films Through a Different Lens / Film Work by Joanna Margaret Paul''
' at the
Close-Up Film Centre in London. The programme, which had previously screened in New Zealand, would later screen at The Cinema Museum London and in Australia and Europe. Todd wrote an accompanying essay and writer and academic Eleanor Woodhouse would review the programme in her essay ''The Transcendent and Domestic in Joanna Margaret Paul’s Films.'' In 2019 New Zealand born artist Kate Davis, Peter Todd, and academic and writer Sarah Neely would present ''Margaret Tait & Joanna Margaret Paul: People and Places'' at the Glasgow Film Festival.
A major retrospective exhibition celebrating her career and legacy ''Joanna Margaret Paul: Imagined in the Context of a Room,'' was held at Dunedin Public Art Gallery between 7th August - 14th November 2021, Christchurch Art Gallery held Te Puna o Waiwhetū from 4 December 2021- 13 March 2022 developed by Dunedin Public Art Gallery with project partner Sarjeant Art Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui. The accompanying illustrated publication features new essays by the exhibition’s curators Lauren Gutsell, Lucy Hammonds and Greg Donson, who were joined in this project by writers Pascal Harris, Emma Bugden, Andrea Bell and Joanna Osborne.
Exhibitions
*1989 ''Joanna Margaret Paul: Chronicle/Chronology'',
Sarjeant Gallery
*1995 ''The Figured Landscape'',
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 ...
*2004–2005 ''Beauty, Even'', City Gallery Wellington, Sarjeant Gallery and
Rotorua Museum of Art and History
*2006 ''Joanna Margaret Paul: Drawing'', Mahara Gallery and Whangarei Art Museum
*2009 ''Joanna Margaret Paul'', Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin
*2010 ''Joanna Margaret Paul: The Colour of Candour'', Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin
*2013 ''Joanna Margaret Paul: Photographs 1976–1985'', Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington
*2015 ''Picture/Poem: imagery of Cilla McQueen & Joanna Paul'', Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin
*2015 ''Thinking Feeling: Time-based works by Ziggy Lever and Joanna Margaret Paul,'' curated by Paula Booker, The Physics Room and RAMP Gallery,
Hamilton, New Zealand
Hamilton ( mi, Kirikiriroa) is an inland city in the North Island of New Zealand. Located on the banks of the Waikato River, it is the seat and most populous city of the Waikato region. With a territorial population of , it is the country's ...
*2015 ''Lunch Poems:
Kate Newby
Kate Newby (born 1979) is an artist from New Zealand.
Background
Newby was born in 1979 in the Auckland Region, Auckland region of New Zealand. She attended the Elam School of Fine Arts, receiving a BFA in 2001, an MFA in 2007, and a PhD in ...
and Joanna Margaret Paul'', Hopkinson Mossman,
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 ...
*2016 ''Light On Things'', Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin
*2017 ''Six views of Rangitoto'', Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin
*2017 ''Not Nostalgia'', Bowerbank Ninow,
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 ...
.
*2018 ''In This Sensual Music'', Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin
*2019 ''The Real Bird'', Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin
*2021 ''Imagined in the Context of a Room'',
Dunedin Public Art Gallery
The Dunedin Public Art Gallery holds the main public art collection of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Located in The Octagon in the heart of the city, it is close to the city's public library, Dunedin Town Hall, and other facilities such as ...
*2021 ''my hands are here'', Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin
*2022 ''The Amorous Encounter'', Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin
Publications
Paul published a number of small chapbooks, in addition to pieces of critical and observational writing in various New Zealand publications.
* ''Rilke's Life of Mary'', 1970
*''Unwrapping the Body'', Bothwell: Dunedin, 1970
*''The Lone Goose'', John McIndoe: Dunedin, 1979
*With Mary Paul, ''Gestures of Prayer'', Bothwell: Dunedin, 1981
*''As I Sat ...'', 1985–1986
*''Ago'', 1985–1986
*''Rose'', handprinted by Brendan O'Brien, Rita Angus Cottage, Wellington, 2000
*''The Cherry Now'', Ferbank Studio: Wellington, 2001
*''Forbidden Apple'', 2003
Further information
*Ian Wedde, 'Resisting Foreclosure: Joanna Paul', in ''How to be nowhere: Essays and texts 1971–1994'', Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1995.
*Paula Booker 'Affect, embodiment, and the power of the glimpse in the films of Joanna Margaret Paul' in ''Thinking Feeling: Time-based works by Ziggy Lever and Joanna Margaret Paul'', Hamilton: Ramp Press, 2015.
*Peter Dornauf, Review of ''Joanna Margaret Paul and Ziggy Lever: Thinking Feeling'' EyeContact, 19 June 2015
*John Hurrell, Review of ''Kate Newby & Joanna Margaret Paul: Lunch Poems'', EyeContact, 9 July 2015
*David Eggleton, 'Illuminations: Cilla McQueen & Joanna Paul at the Hocken', ''Art New Zealand'', no 155, Spring 2015, pp. 58–61
*Alice Tappenden, Inside, looking out: Photographs by Joanna Margaret Paul Circuit, 2 February 2016
Films by Joanna Margaret Paulhosted on the Circuit website
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Joanna Margaret
1945 births
2003 deaths
Elam Art School alumni
New Zealand women artists
People educated at Samuel Marsden Collegiate School
Entrican family