Groundbreakers

The modern city of Ōtepoti Dunedin was founded on civic values of progress and innovation. Home to Aotearoa New Zealand’s first university, first public secondary school for girls, first school of art, and the nation’s first public art gallery collection, Ōtepoti was a place where art and creativity could thrive. As the 19th century was drawing to a close, a new generation of artists was coalescing into a creative vanguard. Distinctive for the strong presence of women artists, this community was woven together through exhibitions, art societies and social networks – cementing Ōtepoti as a progressive centre for art in the 1880s and 1890s. 

Groundbreakers considers the early careers of two of Ōtepoti’s most significant artists, Grace Joel and Frances Hodgkins, who were establishing their artistic practices in the city in the 1890s. Born in Ōtepoti in 1865, Grace Joel had left the city in her early 20s to attend the National Gallery School in Melbourne. After two periods of study, first in 1888-89 and then 1891-94, she returned home as an accomplished and awarded contemporary artist. Frances Hodgkins was born here in 1868 and, encouraged in her creative talents by her father William Mathew Hodgkins, attended private art tuition as well as classes at Dunedin School of Art. In 1890 Hodgkins exhibited her first works in Ōtepoti, and soon set her sights on an artistic career on the European continent. 

Focusing on this period in Ōtepoti’s art history, Groundbreakers places Joel and Hodgkins alongside artists including William Mathew Hodgkins, Jenny Wimperis, Isabel Field, Girolamo Nerli, Nellie Hutton, and other contemporaries. It explores how changing approaches to the landscape captured a view of Aotearoa that was becoming more grounded in lived experience. In parallel, Groundbreakers reveals how portraiture and figure painting offered artists, and in particular women artists, an empowered space for innovation and progress. Drawing together works from the collection of Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena and beyond, this exhibition shows the different courses that Joel and Hodgkins charted through Ōtepoti’s art community as they broke through boundaries and expectations to forge international careers. 

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I whakaūhia te tāone o nāianei o Ōtepoti e kā uara o te koke whakamua, o te auaha anō hoki. Ko te kāika tēnei o te Whare Wānaka Pākehā tuatahi o Aotearoa, te kura tuarua tūmatanui tuatahi mō kā taitamāhina, te kura toi me te kohika toi tūmatawhānui tuatahi hoki o te whenua nei, he pārekereke e whakamatomato ana te tipu o te toi, o te wairua auaha hoki. I te whakamoeka o te rautau 1800, i te whakaputa mai tētahi whakapaparaka hou o kā rika toi hai haputa auaha. Ko te mea kōhure nei ko te kaha tū o kā rika toi wahine, i rarakahia tēnei hapori ki kā whakaaturaka, kā tōpūtaka toi me te tuika o te taura takata me te taura hapori – ko whakaū a Ōtepoti hai pokapū kaikaha o te toi i kā kahuru tau 1880, 1890 anō hoki.

Ka āta tirohia e Groundbreakers te tīmataka o te ao mahi o te tokorua o kā rika toi taioreore o Ōtepoti, Grace Joel rāua ko Frances Hodgkins, i te whakarite ai rāua ā rāua tikaka mahi toi i te tāone nei i te kahuru tau 1890. I whānau mai a Grace Joel i Ōtepoti i te tau 1865, ā, i wehe ia i ōhona rua tekau kia kuraina ai ki te Kura Ahurewa ā-Motu (National Gallery School) i Poipiripi. Ā muri atu i ōhona wā ako e rua, te tuatahi i kā tau 1888-89, kātahi ki kā tau 1891-94, i hoki ia ki te kāika hai tohuka mahi toi, hai rika toi ko whakatohua o taua wā. I whānau mai a Frances Hodgkins i konei i te tau 1868, ā, i ākina ōhona pūmanwa auaha e tōhona hākoro, a William Mathew Hodgkins, i whakaakoria hokitia ia ki ētahi akoraka tūmataiti, ā, ki kā akoraka ki te Kura Toi o Ōtepoti hoki. I te tau 1890, i tū te whakaaturaka toi tuatahi o Hodgkins ki Ōtepoti, ā, kātahi ka aro atu ia ki tētahi aramahi toi ki te whenua rahi o Ūropi.

E aro atu ana a Groundbreakers ki tēnei wā i te kōrero tāhuhu toi o Ōtepoti, ā, ka whakatūria a Joel rāua ko Hodgkins ki te taha o ētahi atu rika toi, tae atu ai ki a William Mathew Hodgkins rātau ko Jenny Wimperis, ko Isabel Field, ko Girolamo Nerli, ko Nellie Hutton ko ētahi anō atu o kā hoa takiwā o tēnei huka. Mā te āta ketuketu i te panonihaka o te whakaaro ki te ao toi o taua wā e toko ake ana tētahi tirohaka o Aotearoa ko whai tāmore ki te wheako tūturu o te noho ki konei. E rere whakarara ana ki tēnei, ka huraina e Groundbreakers te ara whakamana i te auaha me te kokeka whakamuataka i huakina ai ki kā rika toi, inarā ki kā rika toi wāhine nā te peita whakaahua kiritakata me te peita ā-matimati hoki. Mā te tōtō mai i kā mahi toi nā te kohika toi o Te Whare Toi Tūmatawhānui o Ōtepoti, i te kohika toi o Hākena, ā, i tua atu anō hoki i enei whare e rua, ka whakaatuhia e tēnei whakaaturaka kā ara rerekē i whakaterea e Joel rāua ko Hodgkins ki te hapori toi o Ōtepoti i a rāua e haea atu ai i kā paewai o kā hereka me kā whakaaro whāiti kia puta atu ai rāua me ā rāua mahi ki te ao. 

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