Paul Zika : Italian works

Catalogue of exhibition held at Plimsoll Gallery Centre for the Arts, Victoria Dock, Hobart

The work in this exhibition was produced in Italy while the artist was on study leave from the University of Tasmania. The artist's project was assisted by the Australia Council, the Federal Government's arts advisory bod

Zika , P

University of Tasmania Open Access Repository

PAULZIKA ITALIAN WORKS 30 MARCH - 29 APRIL 1990 PLIMSOLL GALLERY CENTRE FOR THE ARTS VICTORIA DOCK • HOBART THE WORK IN THIS EXHIBITION WAS PRODUCED IN ITALY WHILE THE ARTIST WAS ON STUDY LEAVE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA. THE ARTIST'S PROJECT WAS ASSISTED BY THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S ARTS ADVISORY BODY In recent years Paul Ziko's pointing has been noted for its uncompromis-ing commitment to a non-figurative manner of working . His oeuvre has been dominated by many relief paintings in which each colour has been used uniformly to describe and, effectively, to circumscribe each separate plane. While there has been obvious reference to on eccentric kind of 'impossible orchitecture'(the kind of architec-ture which might emerge from constructing fragmentary, non-rectilinear shapes into a three-dimensional object), on the wall these paintings hove token on such a resolute material presence that to call up what might be their figura-tive origins seems to serve little or no function: ostensibly the paintings weren't 'about' the forms from which they were derived in any literal sense. Nevertheless, it remains the case that these works ore manifestly to do with the built environment and hove seemed, in the spaces that hove housed them, to call attention to the considered and arbitrary order which human beings impose on the world . In this they ore quite deter-minedly constructivist in manner and intent. Furthermore the apparent arbitrariness is compounded by the application of colour as a uniform description of plane (both in inten-sity of hue and evenness of surface). But, despite this, the forms con be said to be based upon empirical observation: a typical pointing, for instance, may render the way in which we perceive a flat roof top as a lozenge, its gable as a thin bond laid up tightly on one edge of the lozenge, while the wall beneath it, although realistically a 'solid' plane, may well be served up as two or more contrasting planes by the presence of strong shadow. From a distance, the distinction between one built form and another may well be all-but imperceptible except that a bond of colour or light might allow the eye to differentiate between the two. Paul Ziko's approach to how one renders this 'reality/illusion' ho: token two forms in recent years although they are surprisingly similar in their outcome. In prints and drawings the planes hove been translated literally onto the flat, two-dimensional surface and no attempt is made to alter the perspectival distortions which the eye perceives, to tidy up the picture into a neat three-dimensional illusion through the use of perspectival and tonal devices. On the other hand the relief paintings speak about a built environment not as a series of containers (buildings) but as sur-faces which butt up against one another. It would be wrong to see these paintings as three dimensional objects, even though they hove tectonic integrity, for this would imply that volume was on inherent concern in the work and if there is a consistent thread in all of this work of the lost decode it would be that all deal with picture-making as a consideration of surface not volume. During 1987 and 1988, Ziko produced a series of relief paintings, Entrances to Xanadu , which were notable for a major shift in emphasis , namely the introduction of a much more painterly manner of working : instead of each plane being a pristine monochromatic surface , the new pictures were to include passages of exuberant and descrip-tive multi-coloured painting where the artist's hand is allowed a much freer and more insistent rein. The result was particularly interesting since the new paintings began to suggest that a sense of place was becoming an increasing concern : not only could one imagine that these pictures were being produced with a specific site in mind but equally that the artist was providing a series of descriptive keys which might indicate the whereabouts of a visual source, something about which Zika had been decidedly non-committal in the past. Entrances to Xanadu may provide a key, therefore, to this new body of work which has emerged from a five month stay which Paul Zika has just completed working in a studio in Castellina, a few kilometres away from the Tuscan city of Siena in Italy. What is striking about these five new paintings on paper is the dramatic increase in descriptive information available in each work. Each painting retains that central concern with plane so that in all we can speak of an assemblage of several different surfaces laid one over the other, but the artist has identified those surfaces in a much more descriptive way. So in #5 for instance, the facade of Leonbattista Alberti' s Santa Maria Novella , one of the most beautifu l churches of the Florentine renaissance, be-comes one of the surfaces dealt with, along with fragments of the piazza in another, and a bird's-eye view of the cloistered garden at-tached to the church in another. In # 1 , the acroterium of another classical building is laid off in one sheet against a decorative screen which might have been seen in Venice, and this against a particular brick panel of a wall or a pavement. Patterning and texture emerge as consistent concerns in the new works and are combined with colour repetition to evoke a sense of overall surface relationships. On the one hand it is possible to read these works as a 'journey through a built environment' where one's attention is drawn to fragments of buildings, to half -seen cloistered courtyards or interior gardens observed through the grid of a cast-iron gate, or to the unity of a piazza seen from the balcony of some public building or a hotel, and this sense of a journey is encouraged by Zika through the manner in which he develops 'pathways' of line, pattern and colour. On the other hand these paintings continue to be insistent in their adherence to the idea of picture-making as an art of the surface. Although stencils and sometimes quite heavily textured passages of painting are used, the effect is not to create a volumetric sense of three-dimensional illusion; rather these devices seem to reassert the two-dimensional ity of the paintings - we read over these paintings, not into them. In this , Zika proclaims his contin-ued preoccupation with the condi-t ions of p icture-making as a specific kind of art practice, one which is quite different from , say, sculpture: this, despite the fact that these new works offer the possibility of further experimentation in relief. JONATHAN HOLMES MARCH 1990 PAUL ZIKA STUDIED 1968/71 Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology 1973/74 StMartin 's School of Art, London Individual Exhibitions 1 Site Work 1973 Chapman Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne 1977 Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne 1982 University Fine Arts Gallery, Hobart 1983 Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne 1984 Chameleon Gallery, Hobart 1984/86 'Place of Contemplation ', Mt Nelson, Hobart 1987 Chameleon Gallery, Hobart Roz MccAllon Gallery, Brisbane 1989 Roz MccAllon Gallery, Brisbane Selected Group Exhibitions 1970 'Eight Students from Victoria' , Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney 1971 /86 Print Council of Australia Travelling Exhibitions 1977 'George Crouch Jubilee Invitation Exhibition' , Ballarat Fine Arts Gallery, Victoria 1980 'Recent Tasmanian Sculpture and Three Dimensional Art', Fine Art Gallery, University of Tasmania, and Tasmanian School of Art Gallery, Hobart Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston 1982 'Australian Screenprints 1982' 1984 'Australian Contemporary Printmakers' Canada and USA Touring Exhibition 'Four Contemporary Artists' Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart c A T A L 0 G u E 1' "1 - 89" 276 X 161 em '2. "2- 89" 243 X 156cm 3. "3- 89" 260 X 184cm 4. "4- 89" 232 X 200cm 5. "5- 89" 243 X 243cm ALL WORKS ACRYLIC ON PAPER COURTESY ROZ MACALLAN GALLERY BRISBANE 1985 Anzart. Auckland NZ 1988 ' lnsites- Art in Public Places ' Centre for the Arts Gallery , Hobart 'The Gold Coast Invitation Prize ' Centre Gallery, Qld. 'Artists as Designers', Roz MccAllon Gallery, Brisbane 1990 'Balance 1990', Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane Commissions 1983 Print Council of Australia Member Print 1985/86 'Art in Public Places ', Department of Construction (Tasmanian Government) Grants 1982 1989 Visual Arts Board - Special Project Grant Visual Arts I Crafts Board - Overseas Development, Project Grant Public Collections Artbank Ballarat Fine Art Gallery Geelong Art Gallery Museum of Contemporary Art . Brisbane Parliament House Construction Authority Print Council of Australia Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology State College of Victoria - Hawthorn Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery University of Melbourne University of Tasmania Victorian Ministry for the Arts ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Art Exhibitions Committee wish to thank the artist for his input and assistance with this exhibition. The University of Tasmania ongoing Exhibitions programme receives generous assistance from the Tasmanian Arts Advisory Board. CATALOGUE DESIGN Sandra Soccol CATALOGUE ESSAY Jonathan Holmes PRINTING Focal, Hobart TYPESETTING Sandra Soccol LINOTRONICS Crystal Graphics PHOTOGRAPHY Don Peacock Craige Langworthy Catalogue published by the University of Tasmania Copyright 1990 The artist, the author and the University of Tasmania ISBN 085901 448 7 

Paul Zika : Italian works

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Paul Zika : Italian works

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