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William Hammond (29 August 1947 – 30 January 2021) was a New Zealand artist who was part of the Post-colonial Gothic movement at the end of the 1990s.[2] He lived and worked in Lyttelton, New Zealand.[3][4] The theme of his works centred around the environment and social justice.
Bill Hammond | |
|---|---|
| Born | William Hammond 29 August 1947 Christchurch, New Zealand |
| Died | 30 January 2021 (aged 73) |
| Nationality | New Zealand |
| Education | Ilam School of Fine Arts[1] |
| Known for | Painting |
Hammond was born in Christchurch on 29 August 1947.[5] He attended Burnside High School.[6] He went on to study at the Ilam School of Fine Arts of the University of Canterbury from 1966 until 1969.[6][7][8] Before embarking on his career in art, he worked in a sign factory, made wooden toys, and was a jewellery designer.[9] He also had a keen interest in music, serving as the percussionist for a jug band[5] called The Band of Hope.
Hammond started to exhibit his works in 1980,[5] and went back to painting on a full-time basis one year later.[10] His first solo exhibition was at the Brooke Gifford Gallery in Christchurch in 1982.[11] In March 1987 he showed for the first time at the Peter McLeavey Gallery in Wellington, an exhibition followed by over 20 others.[5]
One of Hammond's best known work was the painting Waiting for Buller (1993).[12] This was in reference to Walter Lawry Buller, the first New Zealander ornithologist who wrote A History of New Zealand Birds in 1873.[5] Hammond was particularly interested in the contradictions in Buller's life, in how he documented birds while being a hunter and taxidermist.[13] Another noted piece of his was Fall of Icarus (1995),[14] which explores the effects of the colonisation on the country,[9] and is exhibited at Christchurch Art Gallery.[5] The Guardian described this as "his most famous work".[9] His painting Bone Yard, Open Home (2009) was the largest single piece of canvas he painted,[6] with a width of more than four metres.[15]
In 1994, Hammond was the joint Premier Award winners with Luise Fong for the Visa Gold Art Award, the largest art prize in New Zealand at the time.[16]
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The overarching theme of Hammond's work was social and environmental issues. Specifically, it touched on the imperiled state of both,[5] as well as the destruction brought on by colonisation.[9] His paintings feature two common themes: references to popular music and gaunt creatures with avian heads and human limbs.[17][18] The characters in Hammond's paintings, which were often anthropomorphic animals, rarely move away from their natural habitat and are in no hurry.[10] Humans are notably absent from his works during the later part of his career, which was influenced by his visit to the Auckland Islands in 1989.[5][9] Two signature colors employed by Hammond were emerald green and gold.[10] He was also at the forefront of the Post-colonial Gothic movement. This ultimately became "one of the most influential tendencies in New Zealand painting" at the turn of the 3rd millennium.[13]
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Hammond eschewed giving interviews[9] and guarded his privacy.[6] He died on the evening of 30 January 2021, at the age of 73.[5] He was labelled as one of the country's "most influential contemporary painters" by Radio New Zealand.[5]
- Chartwell Collection at the Auckland Art Gallery[19]
- Christchurch Art Gallery[20]
- Fletcher Trust Collection[21]
- Museum of New Zealand[22]
- Sarjeant Gallery[23]
- University of Auckland Art Collection[24]
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London.[25]
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