 | “In Dick Frizzell’s first solo exhibition of 1978 his paintings’ deadpan humour was fringed with a barely suppressed exuberance and delight. The paintings collided the pragmatics of an ad-mans’ need for a compelling motif with the visceral pleasures of expressive modernist painting. Like the best of his work between then and now, these images of gaudy fish tin labels and comic strip characters…conveyed the freshness and magic of a first encounter.”(1)
“It was while working in the environment of commercial advertising that Frizzell began to pluck familiar objects from their usual context and turn them into arresting images. Several products that were ‘household’ names to New Zealanders in the late 1970’s became icons in Frizzell’s hands. From sources as varied as canned fish wrappers, corner shop signage and junk mail, he turned images into paintings, giving titles that introduced unexpected associations.”(2)
Frizzell’s work has often had “an eclectic quality, brought about by the variety of styles he has borrowed, pastiched or commented on in his art. In much of his imagery, no line is drawn between low art sources such as comic book illustrations or packaging and the high art references with which his painting is freely sprinkled. Recently, in his tiki paintings, Frizzell dared to take motifs from Maori art and use them in a playful yet provocative manner.”(3)
Born in Auckland in 1943, he studied at the Canterbury School of Fine Arts between 1960 and 1963. Frizzell's exhibiting career spans more than twenty-five years. His works are held in all major public, corporate and private collections in New Zealand. He has also completed a number of major commissions including works for Sky City Casino (Auckland) and the painting of an Ansett New Zealand aeroplane for Starship Children's Hospital. In 1997 a retrospective exhibition of his work, Dick Frizzell: Portrait of a Serious Artiste, was toured to major national institutions.
1 Allan Smith, Dick Frizzell: Portrait of a Serious Artiste, The City Gallery, Wellington/Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 1997
2 Elizabeth Caughey & John Gow, Contemporary New Zealand Art 2, 1999
3 Michael Dunn, Contemporary Painting in New Zealand, 1996 | |
