Governor-General Art Awards

May I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Māori, Cook Island Māori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.

Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni, and as it is evening (sign).

May I then specifically greet you: Jennifer Shearer, President of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts; Wendy Masters and Ian Hamlyn, Vice-Presidents of the Academy; Neil McCormick, executive manager of the Academy; Jeanne Macaskill; the council, and members of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts; distinguished guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen..

Thank you for inviting my wife Susan and I to the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts this evening for the presentation of the Governor-General Art Award.

I will present the award in a few moments but I would first like to say a few words about the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts—of which I am delighted to be Patron—and about the recipient of tonight’s award.

For 128 years the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts has done a magnificent job of both supporting artists—and supporting the community in its enjoyment of art.

The Governor-General Art Award is given for the long service of an outstanding artist. And this evening we celebrate the work of someone who has not only dedicated her life to art, but who has also been unstinting in helping other artists.

Jeanne Macaskill was born in Motueka and spent her childhood there, came to the capital to attend Victoria University of Wellington, went to training college in Dunedin—and then went on to study and work in England and France .

In London she attended the Chelsea School of Art, gaining a National Diploma in Design and the Chelsea Diploma in Fine Arts.

While she was living in London, she was a student of, and worked for, the famous sculptor Henry Moore.

This fact reminds me that Henry Moore was once responsible for a huge and sudden rise in the number of people taking an interest in art in New Zealand.

In 1956, the Auckland City Art Gallery held an exhibition of Moore’s drawings and sculptures. Auckland’s mayor, Mr J.H. Luxford, the well-known bow tie and bespectacled former Senior Stipendiary Magistrate of Auckland, attended the opening – and apparently stormed out of the gallery, demanding of a startled attendant on the way: ‘Does this come out of the ratepayers’ money?’ Mr Luxford then went on to issue a press statement complaining that the figures in Moore’s work "offended against all known anatomy."

As a result, Aucklanders flocked to see the exhibition in their thousands and many more saw it in Christchurch!

By the time Jeanne Macaskill came home to New Zealand in 1972, things had changed.

Jeanne settled in Wellington, and I note that in the “Wellington” entry of Te Ara, New Zealand’s official online encyclopaedia, Jeanne Macaskill is mentioned as a Wellington artist alongside such highly esteemed artists as Rita Angus and Evelyn Page.

New Zealand artist the late Tony Fomison once said of painting that it had “overwhelming competition from photography, cinema and advertising. But it is the meditative visual art; and to get a person to look for more than five minutes at a painting, that’s what it’s all about.”

The meditative quality in Jeanne’s work was emphasised by Gregory O’Brien and Emma Bugden in the catalogue notes they wrote for her exhibition titled Day by Night at the Wellington City Art Gallery in 2006.

These authors wrote as follows: “Jeanne’s paintings are, at once, a meditation on place and personal circumstance, a dialogue with art history and a series of Proustian recollections of childhood sensations.....For Macaskill, painting is essentially an affirming process, a way of saying ‘we lived, we absolutely lived there’.”

I am told that Jeanne still “absolutely lives” in her studio, day by day, still devoting her life to art.

In 2004 Jeanne was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to art and the community.

I would now like to present Jeanne Macaskill with the Governor-General Art Award.

I would now like to close in Maori - New Zealand’s first language –offering greetings and wishing you all good health and fortitude in your endeavours.

No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tēnā koutou katoa.