Continuities
Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost,
No birth, identity, form– no object of the world.
Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing:
Appearance must not foil, nor shifted sphere
confuse thy brain.
Ample are time and space–ample the fields of
Nature.
The body, sluggish, aged, cold–the embers left
From earlier fires,
The light in the eye grown dim, shall duly flame
again…
‘Continuities’ (exert)
Walt Whitman (1819- 1892)
Many may be surprised to know that on the 3rd of September this year Terry Stringer celebrated his 80th birthday. He is surprisingly youthful compared with many octogenarians, displaying the energy and vigour one might expect of a man many years younger, yet, he acknowledges he has begun to slow down. As his 80th birthday approached, he thought it timely look back over his achievements to date and to mark this milestone with a number of significant events.
The first was the publication of a substantial monograph on his life’s work by Massey University Press, STRINGER: The Art of Terry Stringer. This sumptuously illustrated hard cover book of 448-pages serves as the first major survey tracking nearly five decades of Stringer’s distinguished career as one of New Zealand's most celebrated sculptors.
Stringer’s second celebratory event of this significant year was the opening of the exhibition: Terry Stringer & Lois White: A Portrait, on the 10th of September at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pukenga Whakaata, on Queens Wharf, Wellington.
This institutional celebration of Stringer’s work is followed by a very special survey exhibition at Page Galleries; of bronze sculptures the artist has been archiving for his own reference since the 1980s.
Titled Continuities: Stringer’s Stringers after an inspiration poem by Walt Whitman, his exhibition physically presents the essence of Terry Stringer’s sculptural achievement as a totally unique voice in the cannon of contemporary New Zealand Art.
Continuities: Stringer’s Stringers - 1980 to 2020, exhibited by Page Galleries from 22 October, will remain on view until the 14th of November, coinciding with the final month of Terry Stringer & Lois White: A Portrait, at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery.
Each of the sculptures in Continuities have been carefully selected as touchstones of the stylistic and thematic evolutions of Stringer’s unique approach to the human figure over five decades. As the exhibition title suggests; Stringer sees his practise as a continuous exploration of the human condition through the metaphor of figurative sculpture. Each work expresses something of what he has personally experienced in the complex and chaotic world we live in as well as his observations of how others navigate this problematic minefield of human existence in these times.
The concept of a ‘peephole’ is a recurring theme in a number of the works Stringer initially chose to archive but is now making available for sale. This theme subtly echoes the curatorial intent of the Continuities exhibition; to tantalizingly reveal hidden secrets to a privileged few through elaborately ritualistic means.
Page Galleries are delighted by the opportunity to offer such rare and highly significant pieces from the artist’s archive for sale, many of which have never previously been on the market. As the first major solo exhibition of Terry Stringer’s works by a Wellington dealer gallery in many years, Continuities at Page Galleries is much anticipated.
Curated as an opportunity to reveal and make available treasured works the artist has been holding back for decades, Continuities: Stringer’s Stringers - 1980 to 2020, has much to engage, intrigue, and delight fine art connoisseurs, art historians, and to entice serious collectors.