Exhibition celebrates 30 years of work by painter Bill Hammond

28 June 2007

Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu will celebrate almost 30 years of work by one ofNew Zealand’s leading painters when Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morning opens on 20 July.

The survey exhibition features works by the Lyttelton-based artist Bill Hammond who consistently produces paintings which tap into our imaginations in unpredictable, yet familiar ways, says Gallery exhibition curator Jennifer Hay.

“His compositions encompass humour, beauty, and lyricism while reflecting a unique expression of New Zealand’s cultural landscape,” she says.

William (Bill) Hammond was born in Christchurch in 1947 and attended the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts. During the 1970s, he worked in a sign factory, made jewellery and designed and manufactured wooden toys before returning full-time to painting in 1981.

“Bill Hammond is an all-time original – anarchic, subversive and ironic in turn,” says Gallery Director Jenny Harper.

“From the noisy paintings of the 1980s to his pivotal Buller series made in the 1990s, and on to his luminous, masterly paintings of this decade, New Zealand has seldom produced an artist with such a unique pictorial language.”

Ms Hay has centered Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morning around the theme of music found in Hammond’s work. The exhibition will include early music-inspired paintings and the Walter Buller series painted after Hammond’s visit to the sub-Antarctic through to the startling zoomorphic paintings, ancestral studies and recent work featuring the extinct giant New Zealand eagle. 

“Bill Hammond's luscious palette of inky blues, his signature use of emerald green and gold and his endlessly inventive combination of anthropomorphic birds, horses and hybrid creatures will offer viewers an insight into the work of this singular artist.”

The exhibition will feature work from both private and public collections including Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu.

Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morningwill be at Christchurch Art Gallery from 20 July to 21 October 2007.

Principal Exhibition Sponsor: Ernst & Young.

The exhibition and accompanying publication are supported by the Friends of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu.

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