Drawing prize turns more traditional
A drawing competition known for once crowning a jumbled piece of cut-up carpet as the winner has gone the more traditional route this year.
An abstract piece inspired by the Pigeon Valley in the South Island has won the $20,000 Parkin Prize.
Head judge John Gow said his personal taste leaned towards more classic examples of “drawing”, and towards pieces where he could see evidence of the human hand.
That was why he chose Nelson artist Michael Dell’s Every Valley as the winner out of 78 finalists — in turn selected from about 500 entries.
Gow said judging the Parkin was “sort of an honour and a burden”.
“In the art world it’s like sort of homing a target on your back for people to throw things at.”
Dell’s piece is based on a combination of photographs he took of Pigeon Valley, from where he gathers much of his source material.
He said it was “intentionally ambiguous”. Nature had no meaning in itself, “only what we bring to it”.
Gow said the 1.9m by 1.4m piece created a “mystery to the eye”.
Dell said while the piece only took three days to make, it came about from “years of thinking”.
Award patron Chris Parkin said the annual competition began seven years ago, and he believed it served an educational purpose.
“To really start appreciating art you have to believe . . . an artist has put a part of their soul into that piece of work. To get something out of it, you have to make an effort to.”
In 2017 the winner was Kirsty Lillico’s State Block, an artfully draped installation of carpet that had been cut with a knife.
The Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition season runs until September 8 at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts gallery in Wellington.
All the artworks are for sale.