27 January, 1997

ROBERT McDOUGALL ART GALLERY PRESENTS AN EXHIBITION OF WORK BY LEADING AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER ARTHUR TRESS

Fantastic Voyage 14 February-13 April,1997

An exhibition of works by a American contemporary photographer will be presented at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery from 14 February, 1997. Fantastic Voyage: The Photographs of Arthur Tress has been developed and funded by the Arts America Programme of the United States Information Agency. Richard Lorenz, an independent curator from Berkeley, California, has curated this collection of Arthur Tress’s work. The exhibition forms a retrospective view of Tress’s career and includes one hundred framed works dating from 1956 to 1992.

Tress was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1940 and began photographing as a youth in 1952. After graduating from college in 1962, he travelled around the world and photographed cultures and customs in Egypt, Mexico, Japan, India, and Europe. He returned to the United States in 1968 and had his first one-person exhibition at the Sierra Club Gallery in New York City. His interests in comparative world culture, ethnography, psychology, film, and the fine arts have all contributed to the diversified visual iconography of his photographs. Fantastic Voyage presents important examples of all of Tress’s major creative periods through thirty-six years, charting his course from real life in primitive societies to manipulated images of futuristic time travel.

The colour selections focus on narrative serial images, often based on stories devised by Tress which relate to such topics as creation, myths, eroticism, the nature of the artist, ecology, and the cycle of life.

This important international exhibition first began touring in India before 1995. Other venues included in this widely-travelled show, now touring the country, include Singapore, Taiwan, Mongolia, Australia and Canada. Fantastic Voyage can be seen at the McDougall until 13 April, 1997.

The Robert McDougall Art Gallery is Christchurch’s public art museum which features regularly changing exhibitions of international and New Zealand historical and contemporary art. The McDougall Art Annex is one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary art venues. The Robert McDougall Art Gallery is located behind the Canterbury Museum in the Botanic Gardens off Rolleston Avenue. The McDougall Art Annex is situated across the road in the Arts Centre, Worcester Boulevard, Christchurch. Hours are 10 a.m. - 5.30 p.m. everyday from Labour Weekend to Easter Weekend inclusive. Winter hours are 10 a.m. - 4.30 p.m. Closed Christmas Day and Good Friday. Admission is free.

Christchurch Art Gallery ~ Media Releases index