Lusk’s legacy of landscapes
Doris Lusk, North Canterbury Landscape, 1964. Aigantighe Art Gallery Acc no. 2020.11.1. Reproduced courtesy of the artist’s estate
Like many artists working in the mid-20th century, Doris Lusk’s (1916-1990) legacy in New Zealand art is deeply tied to the regional landscape tradition that emerged in the 1930s.
This tradition had no formal doctrine, but endeavoured to capture a distinctly New Zealand style of painting and was particularly animated in Christchurch where Lusk lived during much of her career.
Lusk spent her early childhood in Hamilton before moving to Dunedin as a young woman. It was in the southern city that she attended art school and immersed herself in a creative community that included prominent figures such as Toss Wollaston, and Anne (nee Hamblett) and Colin McCahon.
With her friends, Lusk travelled extensively around the South Island. Though these travels were mostly compelled by seasonal work opportunities in the Central Otago and Tasman districts, the artist’s free time was often spent painting the local landscapes, and it was through this experience that Lusk developed her distinctive, attentive eye for land forms.
Most iconic among Lusk’s work are her paintings of industrial structures such as bridges, hydroelectric dams and pylons amid rugged landscapes.
Usually solitary in their surrounds, the buildings represented the interplay between Lusk’s unease regarding the arrival of industrialisation in New Zealand and her excitement for the country’s burgeoning modernity.
In North Canterbury Landscape, 1964, however, no such buildings are visible. Rich, warm colours pour down the flanks of the hills, while blue, angular mountains and storm clouds loom in the distance.
Untouched by human presence, North Canterbury Landscape isa celebration of the land’s beauty and an ode to the many places that inspired and nourished Lusk throughout her long career.
Next Thursday April 22, at 6pm, Christchurch-based art consultant, writer and former director of Campbell Grant Galleries, Grant Banbury, will give a lecture about two artworks that were purchased by the Aigantighe for the permanent collection, and North Canterbury Landscape – placing this painting by Doris Lusk within the greater context of the artist’s practice.