B.
Space for reflection
Behind the scenes
This week saw us begin the return of Petrus van der Velden's Otira paintings and drawings to public and private collections throughout New Zealand.
Collectively, they had formed the short-lived Christchurch Art Gallery exhibition Van der Velden: Otira. Open for just twelve days before 22 February, it was the first time that the artist's Otira series had been brought together en masse in such a comprehensive way.
Van der Velden was inspired by the raw power of nature – the forces that created massive landforms such as Mt Rolleston and the Southern Alps or the unrelenting force of a surging mountain river carving its way down a mountain slope. He would certainly have been just as awestruck at the power of the natural forces at work underground in Canterbury at present – those massive subterranean seismic waves that are occasionally accompanied with a sonic boom that would make Thurston Moore shake.
A recent mail-out from Auckland's Parsons Bookshop lamented that Christchurch has 'no places for reflection; no churches or galleries'. Personally, I think this couldn't be further from the truth – as I watch my town slowly disintegrate with each shake, buildings I treasured disappearing under the digger's claw each week, I find this to have been the most reflective period of my life. Pausing and reflecting as you pass a site where you know some fellow citizens have not been as lucky as you in escaping the destruction on the 22 February, and perhaps most of all reflecting at the scale of the natural forces at play deep underground. Ah yes, van der Velden would definitely be reflecting upon how small and insignificant we are in the face of these subterranean forces at play. Of course the major place for reflection in van der Velden's life wasn't a church or art gallery or any building for that matter – it was the great outdoors and his first-hand experiences of nature; experiences that translated directly to his Otira paintings.
Petrus van der Velden Mount Rolleston and the Otira River 1893. Oil on canvas. Collection Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1965
Related
Exhibition
Van der Velden: Otira
22 February 2011
This exhibition brings together a comprehensive selection of Van der Velden's paintings portraying the wild, untouched natural beauty of the Otira region's mountainous landscape.
Collection
Petrus van der Velden Jacksons, Otira
Petrus van der Velden established a successful reputation as a painter in the Hague during the 1870s and 1880s. It therefore is astounding that he gave his career away in 1890 and sailed with his family halfway round the world to Christchurch. Holland’s loss was New Zealand’s gain, however, and within a short time of his arrival van der Velden travelled to the mountainous Otira region, where he painted some of the most important works of his career. He was captivated by the untouched beauty and ruggedness of a landscape that was so inherently different to what he had known in Holland. He began producing a series of paintings based on a mountain stream at Otira and on his second visit to the region in 1893 painted this small creek at Jacksons just to the west of Otira.
(March 2018)
Collection
Petrus van der Velden Mount Rolleston and the Otira River
“For the first three days I did nothing at all but just looked, it took my breath away.” —Petrus van der Velden on his first visit to Ōtira.
Van der Velden sensed something about Ōtira that inspired him to avoid the picturesque in favour of something more powerful, and works like Mount Rolleston and the Otira River contain a great visual energy. The mountains seem to wedge into the landscape, their softness suggests a misty or rainy wind and emphasises the intense silvery light breaking the dauntingly overcast sky. A hint of blue is either a speck of hope or the last gasp of light before the storm completely envelops the land and raging river below.
(Endless Light, 29 June 2019 – 8 March 2020)