The distinguished British painter John Blackburn’s start as a professional
artist had its beginning in Auckland in the summer of 1959-60 when he
was included in an exhibition with Tim Garity, Graeme Percy, Alwyn
Lasenby, Robert Ellis and Hamish Keith at the Auckland City Art Gallery. The
curator of the show, possibly Colin McCahon, then Keeper of the gallery, had
been impressed by what at the time were Blackburn’s boldly avant-garde works –
the flamed paint surfaces of his “Encaustic Series”.
Having arrived in Auckland in the mid-fifties and finding the city congenial,
Blackburn found employment as a designer. He met and married a young
businesswoman, Maudie McKinnon, and the couple set up home in Glenfield.
The painter had drifted down to New Zealand following three years National
Service in the RAF. Before that he had studied textile design at the Margate School
of Art, never considering that painting would become the dominant passion of
his adult life.
At Glenfield he was overtaken by a compulsion to create paintings. Childhood
memories of The Blitz, during which he sheltered from overhead bombers in a
garden dugout, and his experiences serving in Malaysia had, over time,
generated in him a philosophical position that demanded expression – he
experimented and developed the completely non-objective but expressive
encaustic works.
If his works had been noted by the ACAG, the local art world generally was in
pursuit of a New Zealand centred art. Blackburn’s works did not fit. But one
patron admired his courage and independence. Les Harvey, the visionary
developer of Parnell Village, acquired a collection of the painter’s
works. He counselled Blackburn to return to Britain where, he was
certain, his chances of gaining recognition would be greater.
Harvey’s prophecy was fulfilled. Back in Britain, collector Jim Ede, owner of
the influential Kettle’s Yard Gallery at Cambridge, saw Blackburn’s first
one-man show at London’s Woodstock Gallery and invited him to join his stable
of British modernists. Blackburn’s profile rose to the point that he was linked
with leading British abstractionists Peter Lanyon, William Scott and Roger
Hilton.
When the Blackburn’s ten-year old daughter fell gravely ill with a kidney
ailment and needed a donor, her father volunteered. Organ transplantation was
in its infancy. A donor had to be in top physical condition. Blackburn went
into training for six months, then following the successful operation, set out
to raise awareness of the need for organ donors by walking from John O’Groats
to Land’s End. While this was effective in its purpose, Blackburn the artist
fell from view.
Years later an art collector, curious to know more about the painter of a work
he had admired in a friend’s home, found the artist in a village with a studio
and outbuilding crammed with the paintings he had continued to make throughout
his years in obscurity.
Blackburn’s rediscovery lead to a renewed career, exhibitions and respectful
reviews.
He works from a moral position, seeking a formal equilibrium that invites
contemplation and communion. He wishes his viewers to find a spiritual
dimension in his works. There is certainly a remarkable combination of
qualities in his paintings that entrance the eye and satisfy the mind.
Improvised gesture, subtle colour and tactile surfaces, unexpected
juxtapositions of forms, edges and linear elements create works that project a
steady energy off the wall to an almost hypnotic effect. They have a
persuasive, gently commanding, rather than a high impact, visual effect on the
viewer.
After his showing with ARTIS a year ago, John Blackburn has held his second successful
exhibition at the well-regarded London Osborne Samuel Gallery. Following the
current Auckland exhibition, he will present a further collection at Louise
Jones’ Lemon Street Gallery in Truro, Cornwall in May.
