Register 

Registering with NZ On Screen means you can:

  • save favourites
  • comment on and discuss titles
  • join the conversations in the messageboard
  • receive updates via email about what's happening in the site – if you want to

 Register now

We won't share your data with anyone (see our Privacy Policy) and we won't spam you. It's that simple.

Close

You are here:

 Kaleidoscope - Bruce Mason 1921-1982
 Kaleidoscope – Attitudes Towards Landscape
 Hotere
 Colin McCahon: I Am
 Edith Collier: A Light Among Shadows
 The Man in the Hat

Synopsis

TVNZ’s flagship 80s arts show looks at Sir Toss Woollaston — a pioneer of modern art in New Zealand. Topics include his development as an artist and the “struggle of painting” (contra convention), difficult years trying to support a family, the influence of his wife, and the liberation he felt in his mid-50s when he could finally earn a living from painting. Woollaston is blunt but generous with his time and opinions. There are precious riffs off his famous description of wanting to paint the sunlight in a landscape, “after it had been absorbed by the earth”.

Credits (10)

 Alison Parr

Alison Parr
Reporter, Director

 Howard Taylor

Howard Taylor
Director

 Denis Harvey

Denis Harvey
Producer

See all credits ›

Post a comment

   
I am:
 

Please keep your comments relevant to this title. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

Comments

No one has commented yet. Go on, be the first!

Produced by

 TVNZ

TVNZ

Source

 TVNZ Archive

TVNZ Archive

Favourite:

You need to be logged in to add to your favourites.

Related Titles (8)

 The Man in the Hat

The Man in the Hat

Film, 2009 (Full Length)

Doco about Woollaston's art dealer Peter McLeavey

 Kaleidoscope – Attitudes Towards Landscape

Kaleidoscope – Attitudes Towards Landscape

Television, 1987 (Full Length)

Toss Woollaston features in this series

 Colin McCahon: I Am

Colin McCahon: I Am

Television, 2004 (Excerpts)

Doco about Woollaston mentoree Colin McCahon

 Hotere

Hotere

Film, 2001 (Full Length)

Another distinguished New Zealand painter

 Kaleidoscope - Bruce Mason 1921-1982

Kaleidoscope - Bruce Mason 1921-1982

Television, 1983 (Full Length)

Kaleidoscope profiles a major figure of NZ letters

 Edith Collier: A Light Among Shadows

Edith Collier: A Light Among Shadows

Film, 2007 (Full Length)

Documentary about a less celebrated painter

 Kaleidoscope - Young Composers

Kaleidoscope - Young Composers

Television, 1987 (Full Length)

More Kaleidoscope from 1987

 Erua

Erua

Television, 1988 (Full Length)

Woollaston is dramatised in this award-winning drama

Quotes

... the mind of a monkey expressing itself through a human. 

– An 1936 review of Woollaston's work, indicating the suspicious attitude to modern art at the time

... you’re friends with people to whom painting has no meaning, or is an ornament for the sitting room, or a souviner of a pretty scene. [...] That conception of painting won’t do anything for you. But you don’t want to be unfriends with those people, so you just ignore painting as much as you can in your intercourse with them.  

– Woollaston on art and friendship in NZ

What diplomas are for, except for being able to impose the same on others, I can’t imagine. They’re the death blow to artists. 

– Woollaston on art education

I am not going to feel good if I try to explain to anybody why I paint. I talk a lot of nonsense. They can find out for themselves, if they want to, by looking at the painting. But I will not tell them ... or analyse. 

– Woollaston on art criticism