In Dick Frizzell’s first solo exhibition of 1978 his paintings’ deadpan humour was fringed with a barely suppressed exuberance and delight. The paintings collided the pragmatics of an ad-mans’ need for a compelling motif with the visceral pleasures of expressive modernist painting. Like the best of his work between then and now, these images of gaudy fish tin labels and comic strip characters…conveyed the freshness and magic of a first encounter.’ (1)
Before committing to a career as a full time artist Frizzell was employed in the commercial design and advertising industry. This background has often fuelled a degree of cynicism and an interest in consumerist culture. The artist has over the years utilised an eclectic assortment of stylistic approaches from cubism, realist landscapes to pop art and cartoons.
'Throughout his career he has cultivated an image as iconoclast to whom nothing, not even Maori art, is sacred. His Tiki painting of 1992 debunked the overly reverential attitudes towards things Maori prevalent at the time.'(2)
(1) Allan Smith, Dick Frizzell: Portrait of a Serious Artiste, The City Gallery, Wellington/Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 1997
(2)Michael Dunn, New Zealand Painting: A Concise History, Auckland University Press, 2003
|
