Early 'superwoman' celebrated

Doris Lusk (1916-1990),  Eroded Hills, St Bathans (1963), oil on board. COLLECTION OF THE DUNEDIN...
Doris Lusk (1916-1990), Eroded Hills, St Bathans (1963), oil on board. COLLECTION OF THE DUNEDIN PUBLIC ART GALLERY

If she were alive today, artist Doris Lusk would have celebrated her 100th birthday last month. Instead, the milestone will be marked with an exhibition of her work, Rebecca Fox finds.

An artist, wife, mother, potter - Doris Lusk was one of the early wonder women, determined to have the best of both worlds. The artist is being celebrated in an exhibition at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery to mark her birth 100 years ago in Dunedin.

Doris Lusk in her Moray Pl studio about 1940. IMAGE COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Doris Lusk in her Moray Pl studio about 1940. IMAGE COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.

An important figure in New Zealand art history, Lusk has many connections to Dunedin, even though she grew up in the Waikato and spent most of her later life in Christchurch.

She briefly attended high school in the city when her family moved back to Dunedin, before braving her father's unhappiness by enrolling in what was to become the Dunedin Art School but was then King Edward Technical College.

"She was very much part of the Dunedin art scene in the 1930s,'' DPAG curator Lucy Hammonds said.

She held her first exhibition after she finished studying in 1939 in a studio space on the corner of Moray Pl and Princes St.

The Dunedin Public Art Gallery held the first retrospective of her work in 1966 and bought a number of works from that exhibition, some of which will be re-exhibited in the upcoming exhibition alongside works from the Hocken.

"I wanted to look closely and tell a bit of the story of her practice but emphasise her connections to this place - she is an important artist who has come from here.''

Her granddaughter Tatyanna Meharry followed in Lusk's footsteps, studying textile art to master's level at what had become the Dunedin School of Art at Dunedin Polytechnic.

It is these connections Hammonds hopes to highlight in the upcoming exhibition, which will also feature the unveiling of a new Lusk acquisition.

"It's a nice opportunity to acknowledge how she connects to Dunedin.''

The work features the Dunedin Botanic Garden Wolf Harris Fountain, donated to the city in 1890 by businessman Wolf Harris, which first tipped DPAG off to it being a significant work for the city even though it was undated and unnamed when it came up for auction.

The location of the fountain gave an indication of when it was painted, as it had earlier been in the Queens Gardens and, after several relocations, was incorporated into the Shakespearean Garden at the Botanic Garden in 1933.

"It was at the time she was entering art school and they were promoting the idea of getting out into the environment to paint.''

An etching by Lusk held by the Hocken, Two Gardeners, showed she often visited the site looking for inspiration during her art school years, she said.

"It's a very early work.''

Further investigation since the work was bought with funds from the Dunedin City Council had uncovered that the work was exhibited in her first solo exhibition at her Moray Pl studio.

It is believed to have been completed during her final years at art school and the ``distinctive brush strokes'' showed the influence of her teacher, R.N. Field.

The work also appeared to still be in the frame Lusk chose for it and it was being repaired by the gallery in time for the exhibition.

The Hocken also held an early work depicting the gasworks and foreshore, making the pair a nice sample of Lusk's work of the time.

"It also locates the time the artist trained and reflected the influence of R.N. Field, who was an influential figure in art education.''

During this time, art education was being revitalised and Lusk, along with her good friends Colin McCahon and Anne Hamblett, were learning their craft under J.D. Charlton, Field and Russell Clark.

It was at a time when the landscape painting movement was gaining momentum in New Zealand as a way to capture the country's national identity.

Not only were the wide-open countrysides of Central Otago captured, but the more industrial cityscapes.

After Lusk married in 1942, the couple settled in Christchurch, where despite having three children she continued to paint.

"She was determined to persist

with her painting even in her early married years and when she had children.''

Lusk continued to produce and exhibited as part of "The Group'', which showcased her New Zealand landscapes.

By the end of the 1940s, Lusk's paintings received critical acclaim, appearing in the Year Book of the Arts in New Zealand.

As well as painting, she had a keen interest in ceramics, teaching evening classes and producing ceramics ranging from domestic items such as urns, pots and plates to decorative sculptures and masks.

"She was also raising a family ... and taught at Canterbury University.''

Some of her ceramics from the 1930s would also be exhibited to give visitors a sense of what she did.

"There is evidence of how her interest in painting influenced her glaze application. She seemed to enjoy bringing her interest in painting over into her ceramics.''

Not much Lusk pottery was held by institutions, which might have been the result of her using her married name on her ceramics - Doris Holland.

"She clearly set out to keep them separate.''

Her practice was reinvigorated in the 1960s and 1970s when she experimented with watercolours and other techniques. Travel to Europe also influenced her work in the 1970s.

She retired from teaching in the 1980s and continued to paint landscapes, and died in Christchurch in 1990.

 

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