...........................................................................
Paul Hartigan
The Hand of Hartigan
Hartigan has been committed to extending the boundaries of art – he is one of New Zealand’s most innovative artists. His idiosyncratic images deconstruct the separation between art and the everyday object, while his visual lexicon of Western culture aligns the work with Pop whizzes Andy Warhol and Richard Prince.
Paul Hartigan has established himself as one of New Zealand’s foremost and innovative artists creating iconic imagery for more than 30 years. Neon, Vinyl, Polaroid and Enamel can all be found in his artistic tool-kit.
Known as a virtuoso craftsman, his techniques embrace and masterfully explore the peculiarities of any medium he chooses – Enamel paintings appear to melt in front of our very eyes; nostalgic Polaroids are re-imaged onto canvas; coloured Neon light-tubes speak a new language and Screen-prints cheekily bleed in vivid colours.
Hartigan’s paintings and prints reflect his love of American Pop Art and fascination with popular culture - posters, advertising, comic heroes, tattoo and neon are all an inspiration. His characteristic images have extended the boundaries of art, with colours and line as bold and brash as the subjects they were drawn from.
While his Pop-art ideals deconstruct the separation between art and the everyday object, his distinctive visual language, like fellow artist Frizzell, combines both ‘high art’ and the ‘low art’ imagery with a cool strategic ambivalence. His neon graffiti adorns the streetscape of our major cities.
Paul Hartigan was the first New Zealand artist to paint The Phantom, (1973) - his now legendary dripping enamel depiction has become the ultimate NZ Pop art icon.
...........................................................................
“Hartigan’s Phantom has become the iconic image of New Zealand Pop art of the 1970s”
John Daly-Peoples, National Business Review
The Cartoon Show, Auckland Art Gallery, 2001-2002
...........................................................................
On returning to Auckland in 1974 from living in Melbourne where he trained in commercial screen-printing he established Snake Studios, a handprint studio inspired by Warhol’s Factory, producing original silk-screened fabrics, t-shirts, posters and artist prints. Snake Studios was also known as a social Mecca for names of the period.
In 1982 Hartigan formed Gone On NEON, a boutique neon sign company. In a market dominated by multi-national Claude Neon his work was typified by bringing a strong design ethic to the industry. He illuminated many iconic names of ‘80s Auckland cool, designing signage for Chris Cherry’s Street Life clothing label, Monsoon Menswear, The French Café, Real Groovy Records and live music venue, The Powerstation.
During the 1990s, Hartigan created colourful psychedelic computer-generated abstract paintings, huge ink-jet images on vinyl in the style of urban billboards – another first in NZ. He also produced a unique range of ceramic-ware, the Edwardian Tattoo and Erotica series – both extremely collectable now.
Most recently, his magical 3D neon works are mashing it all up, pushing and pulling the medium in unexpected ways far beyond its two-dimensional signage roots. Swirling neon forms protrude from the wall with sculptural presence, the complexity of shape adding a depth and delicacy to the work not usually associated with neon light.
An important figure in the contemporary art movement in New Zealand, Paul Hartigan is represented in major national collections including Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery, Sarjeant Gallery and the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. His large-scale neon installations can be seen on permanent display at the University of Auckland (Colony, 2004), the Supreme Court Wellington (Whipping the Wind, 1988), Orion NZ Ltd Christchurch (Nebula-Orion, 2001) and the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery (Pathfinder, 1997).
|
|
|
|
