Max Gimblett first Kiwi artist to hold a place on Guggenheim walls

  • Breaking
  • 04/06/2009

Max Gimblett has achieved a first for a New Zealand artist – his works have been displayed in New York’s Guggenheim.
     
It is regarded as one of the greatest honours a contemporary artist can receive.

The Auckland-born artist is currently exhibiting works at Wellington’s Page-Blackie gallery.

He first started expressing himself visually in his late 20s. That was over four decades ago and at 73 Max Gimblett believes he is now in his prime.

Although he is now based in New York, Mr Gimblett has taken up the mantle as the first Kiwi to hold a place on these famous walls.

“I felt thrilled and ecstatic and then I felt that it was real and true and I’d been working a long time and it was my break through, sort of my zenith,” says Mr Gimblett.

With an impressive body of work under his belt already - it was his painting ‘Lion’ that now sits in the company of the artists he has long admired.

“It’s really indiscribable,” he says. “It felt like a prayer had been answered and also my self-esteem went up, I felt like I was an even better painter than I ever thought I might have been.”

Mr Gimblett grew up in Auckland as a Scottish Presbyterian. He married into a Jewish family and has gradually become a Zen Buddhist.

It is that spirituality that sits at the core of his work.

“My idea of do unto others as you'd have done unto you is probably the central idea that drives me.”

Driving with his foot firmly on the accelerator, he does not see himself slowing down any time soon.

“Now I’ve got the conditions that I want, now I can put the pace on. I’m very ambitious for my work,” he says.

So he is not about to start resting on his laurels now.

“Boy, bring it on, let's have some more. You know, I felt I’d better have a show in that museum soon of my own,” he laughs.

And after being told by a lot of people that they thought his work was the finest in the show, it is a dream that is not entirely out of the question

3 News

source: newshub archive