Objects of everyday - Godfrey Miller
Just wanted to pass on a quote that impressed me greatly.
It is extracted from a book by John Henshaw (1962) on the noted New
Zealand artist and art teacher, Godfrey Miller. He taught a good friend
of mine.
"In confronting the works of Godfrey Miller we are not plunged with
violent excitement into the darkness of irrelevant personal mysticism,
but gently reminded that the spirit hovers very near the objects of
everyday.
The common places of this world are likely to conceal its greatest
secrets, once we achieve that shedding of scales which enables us to see
them as they are."
Tony
Tony Sevil, a friend of me from Australia, wrote this on a list I am subscribed to. I found it so directly to the core of an idea and philosophy very important to me, that I asked him for the permission to have it on the Hugen site. Thank you Tony!
It would be great if also anyone else would tell about Godfrey Miller.
Enok
And thanks to links generously mailed me by Carol and Renata, I have found this:
Madonna [1957-9] is one of a number of images of Madonnas which Miller made 1945-64 in which he used clear symbolism: the sphere surrounding the Madonna representing an aureole, diagonal bandings of line and colour representing divine rays, and the veiled moon emphasising her role as a mother. He showed the Madonna and child in an idealised relationship, with the mother enfolding the child in silent communion. Miller only hinted at the face of the Madonna in this work, and continued the image onto the edge of the cloth, as an extension of the work into space. The inscription suggests that this painting previously belonged to Donald Friend, who is known to have owned a number of works by Miller and also to have made pastiches of them.
Godfrey Miller was born in Wellington, New Zealand on 20 August 1893. He studied architecture at the Otago School of Art and Design 1910-13 and at the Dunedin Technical School 1910-11. During the first world war he enlisted with the New Zealand Engineers and served on Gallipoli, where he was wounded in 1916. He moved to Melbourne in 1918 and began his career in painting, studying at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School from 1923-4. He travelled to London in 1929 and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art 1929-30 and part-time from 1933-8. He returned to Sydney in 1938 and taught at the East Sydney Technical College from 1945 until his death. Miller was interested in theosophical colour theories, and colour as a circular flow held by blacks and whites. He portrayed simple subjects - still lifes, landscapes and the human figure, working with painstaking rigour, with geometric precision to create images with jewel-like surface and ethereal delicacy. He used ruled lines crossing the canvas to form a web-like grid, to suggest the endless possibilities of life, the wholeness of forms and their potential dissolution back to the elements. Miller died on 10 May 1964, aged 71.
Reference: Deborah Edwards, Godfrey Miller, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1996.
found on: http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/LW/waywewere/miller.html
And Tony (Green), on New Zealand, sent me this mail:
godfrey clive miller (1893-1964) according to brown & keith -- an
introduction to new zealand painting,1969
-- he worked mainly in australia-- brown & keith say "he is reported as
having made a brief return to new zealand in 1938" p118
-- there was not a lot of writing about him in new zealand --
give me a week or two & i should be able to get you some information from
fine arts library of university of auckland
best tonyThank you, Tony! Looking forward together with you! - Enok
And now Tony, and this time it is Tony Sevil, is adding this:
"I made a slight mistake in my reference to Miller.
He was New Zealand born, but spent most of his working life in Oz.
BTW apparently he was a delightful man and a bit of a character.
My friend said he would come to classes with old trousers held up with a
piece of string :)
He lived very cheaply and his neighbours in Sydney were concerned about
him, thinking he didnt get enough to eat, and they would take him food.
Yet, my friend said, he would come into class and say,
"I wont be here for a couple of days. I'm going to London to see a
Picasso exhibition"
He died quite a wealthy man.
I will see if I can get some more anecdotal stuff from my friend."Tony's address: tsevil@tpg.com.au
And now (31.01.01) Tony Green is telling:
for enok -- this is info received today from kate gallagher at the auckland
art gallery --
their holding of godfrey miller's paintings and drawings:
'Godfrey Clive Miller, is included in the Auckland Art Gallery collection.
There is one oil painting, Trees and Mountain Series, and five pencil
drawings, Figure Study I, II, III, Reclining Figure and another called
Seated Figure'
best tony tgreen@clear.net.nz