Woollaston 101

In 1928 an 18 year old Toss Woollaston made his way to Nelson from Taranaki to work in an orchard in Riwaka. He had always had an affinity for the arts, but it was in Nelson that he began perusing art seriously.

His art education was sporadic, and in Nelson he learnt from notable residents Hugh Scott and Flora Scales, until he moved first to Christchurch, and then Dunedin, to attend art school. In Dunedin he met Edith Alexander, who would become his wife, and Colin McCahon, who would visit the Woollaston’s and lived for a time in Nelson.

Toss WOOLLASTON (New Zealander, b.1910, d.1998), Kiln near Riwaka, 1971, watercolour on paper. Collection of The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū: gifted by the artist in 1979

Woollaston came back to Nelson with Edith and was actively involved with The Suter Art Gallery and Nelson Suter Art Society. He moved to Greymouth in 1949 and it was whilst based here that he was sought out by art dealer Peter McLeavy who became one of his staunchest allies. Woollaston returned to Nelson in 1968. In 1976 The Suter appointed its first professional Director, Austin Davies, with whom Woollaston struck up a close friendship. It is a result of the mutual admiration they held for each other that in 1979, Woollaston gifted to the gallery 101 works on paper.

Toss WOOLLASTON (New Zealander, b.1910, d.1998), Portrait of Austin Davies, 1986, oil on hardboard. Collection of The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū: gifted by the artist in 1986

The reasons he gave for making this gift to the gallery as –
“My love for Nelson, which I would like to celebrate in this way; the splendid new gallery you are about to have, where the works would be assured of better care and presentation than I could give them as a private citizen; the climate of appreciation that is being engendered in Nelson by your director.”[1]

Toss WOOLLASTON (New Zealander, b.1910, d.1998), Takaka Valley, 1961, ink on paper. Collection of The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū: gifted by the artist in 1979

Toss WOOLLASTON (New Zealander, b.1910, d.1998), View South West from Takaka Hill, 1971, watercolour on paper. Collection of The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū: gifted by the artist in 1979

Toss WOOLLASTON (New Zealander, b.1910, d.1998), Jeremy Classen with Cat, 1975, watercolour on paper. Collection of The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū: gifted by the artist in 1979

Toss WOOLLASTON (New Zealander, b.1910, d.1998), Edith, 1947, pen and ink on paper. Collection of The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū: gifted by the artist in 1979

Woollaston was a prolific writer, through letters and autobiographically reflecting on his own life and work through various memoirs and interviews. He was always very aware of how his work was perceived and understood. He said of his colour palette –
”My own ultimately rather restricted range of dull earth colours and reduced blues and greens arose from my own personal response to the daytime earth colours of the sun-drenched landscape of Mapua....writers on my work are fond of quoting me as having said...I wanted to paint the light, but only after it had been absorbed into the earth. It is true."[2]

Toss WOOLLASTON (New Zealander, b.1910, d.1998), From Spooners Range, Nelson, 1974, oil on board. Collection of The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū: gifted by Peter and Hilary McLeavey and family in memory of Jessica and Hilcote Pitts-Brown in 2012

He also has a keen sense of humour, The Suter archives has a copy of a particularly amusing speech he read at the opening of his exhibition at The Suter on 15 July 1985 –

“According to a letter I received earlier this month, I have no right to be with you here tonight, enjoying your approval of my work.  No right at all.  The letter is from a person called Joy Lee, who came to Nelson towards the end of 1984 and sought an interview with me, with a view, she said, to including my biography in a series she was writing for an Australian journal on people and their occupations.

Six months or so went by and I had almost forgotten about Joy Lee, when the letter came.  It was dated June 4th; so it had taken about a month to reach me.  Here it is:

Dear Toss,

Just a line to once again express my pleasure at meeting you and for your hospitality. 

I have however been giving alot [sic] of thought to our interview and to your art.  I have decided that it would not be fair to the very fine men and women I have been interviewing for my series to include your life story.  Although you have received recognition for your art, I have to admit, I see nothing of value in it.

I know you have devoted your life to it, but alas I feel you could have made a mistake, as I see nothing to indicate any kind of artistic gift.  I feel you would be better to spend your days in the garden where you have a worthwhile product to show for your effort.

Please give my regards to Edith and Margaret.

Regards,
Joy.

At first I felt the letter should have been longer – that Joy Lee owed me an insight into the processes of thought that had brought her to her conclusion; or at least a definition of what artistic merit is. 

But no doubt I was wrong. 

In our society a condemned man has not the right to free intercourse with his judge; he must accept his sentence like a man.

And my sentence, you will agree – to be confined to my garden for the rest of my days – is a very light and humane one.  It is hardly a punishment at all when you consider the heinous life of crime I have been living for these last twenty years – taking their money in increasing amounts from unsuspecting people for works that have absolutely no artistic value at all.

I am presenting a copy of my judge’s letter to the Director for the archives of The Suter Gallery.

Then, if some future Director comes across it and believes it true, he will have authority to make a bonfire of all these works – or send them to the tip, where nobody is allowed to salvage things anymore. 

Seeing I have broken my parole to be here and do this, let us enjoy ourselves for the next hour or two and leave the vexed question of artistic merit to look after itself in the longer processes of time.”

The irony of this is that by 1985 Woollaston was considered so influential and important in New Zealand’s art history that he had been awarded a Knighthood 6 years earlier. 35 years later it is safe to say that ‘processes of time’ still deem Woollaston to be one of our most important and influential artists.

Sarah McClintock
Suter Curator

You can read more about Toss Woollaston here -
Te Ara
The Prow

Toss WOOLLASTON (New Zealander, b.1910, d.1998), View from Mahana, 1985, oil on hardboard. Collection of The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū: purchased from the 'Goodman-Suter Biennale' in 1986 with the Goodman-Suter Fund and the assistance of QEII AC

[1] Letter to The Suter Art Gallery, 26 May 1979
[2] Pound, F. (2009) The invention of New Zealand: art & national identity, 1930-1970 Auckland N.Z.: Auckland University Press, p 54