Michael Illingworth
Date of birth
1932
Date of death
1988
Place of birth
Place of death
Nationality
Biography
Michael Illingworth was a painter working with a unique vision in New Zealand from the 1960s to the 1980s. Born in Britain, he first emigrated to New Zealand in the early 1950s. In 1959, at the age of 27, he returned to London and worked at Gallery One as an assistant to art dealer Victor Musgrave. During this time Illingworth actively expanded his knowledge of international art, bringing its influence with him back to New Zealand. His work retains a strong stylistic link to artists such as Paul Klee and Joan Miro.
Stylistically, Illingworth’s figures are instantly recognisable. “The shape of my heads I take from that which nature has drafted as the shape strongest for protection (seen in such as an egg). My bodies come from the pyramid. The head I make is often to act as a canopy against nuclear fallout. The pyramid seems a sensible fallout shelter also.” (Illingworth, Scraps Book 2, Illingworth Estate Archive, in Aaron Lister and Damian Skinner, A Tourist in Paradise Lost: The Art of Michael Illingworth, City Gallery Wellington, 2001, p.22.)
Illingworth’s “figures” often developed into specific characters that came to frequent his paintings. The Piss-Quicks began to appear in 1961. Thomas P.Q. was said to have represented the type of man that Illingworth had observed while in London. Such men would move quickly through art exhibitions, barely glancing at the art, before asking directions to the toilet. In Thomas P-Q Esquire on Holiday we see a young Piss-Quick in highly conservative clothing. The coin in his hand is a regular feature of Illingworth’s depictions of the Piss-Quicks, and sits there at the ready should he need to pay for the use of the facilities. This combination of money and attire suggest wealth, but not necessarily fine taste or a discerning eye.
“The idea of critical vision is central to Illingworth’s projected artistic identity, continually rehearsed in notions of seeing through the façade of civilisation, or identifying the extraordinary and poetic in nature. On another level, the eye, and its gaze, is fundamental to the meanings produced within Illingworth’s paintings, since seeing, or its lack, characterises much of the social dysfunction Illingworth describes through the Piss-Quicks with their vacuous stares and blank faces.” (ibid., p.28.)
Gow Langsford Gallery website accessed 16/03/11
http://www.gowlangsfordgallery.co.nz/featured/illingworth/
Stylistically, Illingworth’s figures are instantly recognisable. “The shape of my heads I take from that which nature has drafted as the shape strongest for protection (seen in such as an egg). My bodies come from the pyramid. The head I make is often to act as a canopy against nuclear fallout. The pyramid seems a sensible fallout shelter also.” (Illingworth, Scraps Book 2, Illingworth Estate Archive, in Aaron Lister and Damian Skinner, A Tourist in Paradise Lost: The Art of Michael Illingworth, City Gallery Wellington, 2001, p.22.)
Illingworth’s “figures” often developed into specific characters that came to frequent his paintings. The Piss-Quicks began to appear in 1961. Thomas P.Q. was said to have represented the type of man that Illingworth had observed while in London. Such men would move quickly through art exhibitions, barely glancing at the art, before asking directions to the toilet. In Thomas P-Q Esquire on Holiday we see a young Piss-Quick in highly conservative clothing. The coin in his hand is a regular feature of Illingworth’s depictions of the Piss-Quicks, and sits there at the ready should he need to pay for the use of the facilities. This combination of money and attire suggest wealth, but not necessarily fine taste or a discerning eye.
“The idea of critical vision is central to Illingworth’s projected artistic identity, continually rehearsed in notions of seeing through the façade of civilisation, or identifying the extraordinary and poetic in nature. On another level, the eye, and its gaze, is fundamental to the meanings produced within Illingworth’s paintings, since seeing, or its lack, characterises much of the social dysfunction Illingworth describes through the Piss-Quicks with their vacuous stares and blank faces.” (ibid., p.28.)
Gow Langsford Gallery website accessed 16/03/11
http://www.gowlangsfordgallery.co.nz/featured/illingworth/