Figures in light 17

Pat Hanly trained as a painter in Christchurch before departing New Zealand to live in England and Italy. Upon his return in 1962 after four years away, he settled in Auckland. His three European series shown at the Ikon Gallery, an early private-dealer gallery, were dramatic works that presaged his key concerns - relationships between women, men, and children; the necessity for a spiritual quality to life and the significance of ecology on both a personal and global level. Hanly has few illusions about New Zealand; it is growing up as a nation and he believes that artists have a strategic contribution to make: 'Painting and sculpture are not entertainments offered merely as a social indulgence . . . '. He further noted in his journal, a few months before beginning his Figures in Light series: 'Light, bright, pure, exciting, free, expansive painting must come, there is nothing else here yet'. The extreme character of Pacific light, with its ability to bleach out volumes and define sharp edges to colourful shapes, has always inspired Hanly. By searching for what it means to live and work as a painter, he has contributed much to the future of visual art in New Zealand; his work emanates a love of life and a determination to live with a spirit entirely devoid of cynicism and indifference. (from The Guide, 2001)

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