ONE O’CLOCK JUMP report

Saturday morning and fourteen NPSNZ members gathered  in the foyer of the Christchurch Art Gallery for a guided tour of the One O’clock Jump  exhibition. Gallery guide Marg. spoke first in general terms about the history of the exhibits then in more specific terms about several of the works. They are part of a large collection of works presented to four NZ galleries in the 1953 by  New Zealand born British art collector and dealer Rex Nan Kivell. He was born and raised in New Brighton before serving in WW1 and then owning the Redfern  gallery in London. This exhibition is exclusively lino prints and all, except one, are from the 1920’s and 30’s

The linocut was a cheap and easy form of print making that emerged in the modern era of the  20s & 30s. They aimed at capturing the form, patterns, shapes, movement and colours in everyday activities explored in unique ways. Many of the prints originally sold for a couple of pounds

There was a short  video of 90 year old key contributor Sybil Andrew whose work utilized simplified geometric forms combined with vibrant, flat colours and dramatic arrangements using the device of a “centrifugal force field where elements of the composition rotate around a central point in order to create the illusion of movement. The aim was for us, as photographers, to experiment with the idea of using movement in photography.

During morning coffee Barry Dench gave us an excellent presentation plus handouts, on “Creative Photography.  These covered how to make motion blur photography using shutter priority and manual settings on our cameras.  He also covered various filters both circular and square providing quite a challenge for many of us to experiment with.

Thank you, Eric for organising this outing with a difference. To members, if you haven’t seen the exhibition it is well worth a visit, it’s free and runs until May 11^th.