Art Seen: July 28

This week, ODT art critic James Dignan reviews works by Billy Apple, Doris Lusk, and Maja Moritz.

Billy Apple® Coffee, by Billy Apple.

Billy Apple is the godfather of New Zealand pop art. He was at the heart of the movement in its heyday of 1960s New York, though - as is all too common - he is far less well-known in his native land.

Over recent years, Apple has explored the nature of commodification and corporate identity, and is now officially registered as a trademark. Extending pop art's fascination with the exaltation of the mass produced, his oeuvre now includes not only paintings - products in themselves - but also a series of consumer products that are more everyday in their nature but more esoteric from the standpoint of art.

In the current exhibition, Apple presents a display of his branded tea and coffee, accompanied by bold, bald painted logos in copyrighted shades of brown and black.

The packets and tins sit in front of these canvases, each conforming to specific classical aesthetic ideals; the blends of coffee within the coffee bags, for instance, are in the golden ratio of 1 to 1.61, a ratio with special mathematical properties believed by the ancients to be the most harmonious proportions.

Whether you are an aficionado of pop art or just curious about one of New Zealand's most highly regarded and quixotic artists, this is an intriguing exhibition.

Rock face, Weka Pass, by Doris Lusk.

The work of another important New Zealand artist is on show at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Dunedin-born Doris Lusk was at the forefront of the burgeoning local art scene of the late 1930s, and a major force in the country's modernist art.

To mark the centenary of her birth and the acquisition by the gallery of a signature early work, a cross section of her art is being exhibited by the gallery.

The pieces on display capture Lusk's excellent use of expressionist and cubist technique applied both to the natural landscape and to industrial and urban settings.

As were many of her contemporaries, Lusk was fascinated by the interaction and interplay of the natural and man-made, as noted by such works as her oil Gasworks and foreshore, Dunedin and her much later watercolour Variations on a theme at Halswell.

Her pure landscapes are perhaps even more fascinating, with the surprising combination of bold cubist-inspired oils such as Rock face, Weka Pass and the gentle fluidity of watercolours such as Kaikoura Coast.

The small group of ceramics presented, originally shown under the artist's married name of Doris Holland, indicate how well the artist transferred both her abilities and techniques to the three-dimensional medium.

Eleanor Catton, by Maja Moritz.

Dunedin Public Library is the perfect setting for an exhibition of photographs by Maja Moritz that incorporates 43 portraits of New Zealand authors. The exhibition is, as might be expected, accompanied by a display of books by the subjects of the photographs.

The images are excellent examples of photojournalism; the subjects have been presented in settings that reflect their life and literary work, and all appear comfortably at ease with the photographer.

There is good use of lighting, and the composition is noteworthy in images such as those of Tina Makereti, Eleanor Catton, Bernard Beckett and Nalini Singh.

The portraits range from extreme close-ups, such as those of Greg Broadmore and Bill Manhire, to full-length works in which the background setting deliberately dominates.

Moritz cleverly makes use of photographic maestro Yousuf Karsh's first rule of portraiture ("Give them something to do with their hands''), as exemplified in the images of Michael Cooper (with wine glass and pen), a guitar-strumming Hinemoa Baker, and Anna Jackson dishing out feed to her chickens.

There are many delights in this display, from Witi Ihimaera with his grimacing carved friend to Philip Temple sitting pen in hand at his cluttered but cosy desk.