New Zealand Landscape Painter Harold Coop releases prints today

NZ Artist Harold Coop

Well-known New Zealand painter Harold Coop has today released a series of prints. Coop is a popular painter in the field of New Zealand contemporary landscape and abstracted landscape. He has had 15 one-man exhibitions throughout New Zealand (so far!), and has also exhibited in France, England, and Australia. His paintings are well-known from his book "A vision of New Zealand" and his paintings are held in important public collections such as the Governor General's Auckland residence.

Harold Coop says that his "paintings radiate a love of the diverse unspoiled landscape and bright clear light with which New Zealanders find themselves surrounded. My paintings express the differing and often transient interaction of land forms, colour, and human contact."

Pictured is Coop's print of his painting Pohutukawa Abstract.

Pindrop Foundation Prints

The Art of Hearing is a fundraising opportunity for the Pindrop Foundation, the non-profit, public face of the Northern Cochlear Implant Trust that governs the implant programme. Their focus is to raise public awareness about the technology available and to provide people access to implants as a matter of right, ensuring that those in need receive one in a timely manner. New Zealand Fine Prints are pleased to assist the Art of Hearing initiative through the sale of prints produced for the Pindrop Foundation from leading New Zealand artists.

These original prints are from some of the biggest names in contemporary New Zealand art - Dick Frizzell, Shane Cotton, John Pule, Jacqueline Fahey, Judy Millar, Robert Ellis, Denys Watkins and emerging artists like Kate Small and Sarah Hughes.

Pictured are "The Clang is the Proof of the Bell" by Dick Frizzell and "Broken Water" by Shane Cotton.

Prints of Maori Portraits painted by Goldie, Lindauer - Should they be allowed by New Zealand Galleries?

Maori portrait by Goldie

Faced with the dwindling supply of prints of paintings by Charles Frederick Goldie we were talking in the office today about the problems publishers of prints are having with the publication of Maori portraits that are held in some major New Zealand public galleries.

For a long time paintings of Maori subjects have been reproduced as prints. Goldie himself did a handsigned print of "A Good Joke" in the 1920s (which now sell for around $1000 each on the rare occasion they come up at auction). However during a major Goldie exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery in 1997 some Gallery staff became nervous about the use of Goldie's Maori portraits (on a large calender) after they were questioned about their right to do so by at least one descendant. Since then the idea of seeking permission from descendants of a [Maori] portrait's subject before a painting is reproduced has taken hold at at least two major New Zealand public art galleries. We have heard the term "moral copyright" being used to describe this new idea that if a print is being made of a painting with people in it there is an obligation to trace descendants of the subjects to ask their permission.

Because we stock all Maori portraits available as prints we have descendants of Goldie (and Lindauer) subjects emailing or calling on at least a weekly basis who want to purchase prints of their ancestors that are not currently in print. Print publishers are facing a gallery policy that is inventing a new form of copyright that is not recognised outside of a couple of institutions in New Zealand. We would love to hear views from all sides of the debate about the publication of prints of Maori Portraits - please add your comment to the discussion below.

Auckland Printmaker Mark Compton releases prints

Auckland printmaker Mark Compton works for one of New Zealand's leading fine art screenprinters. As a major part of Artrite's production team Mark has had the pleasure of working with some of the great names in contemporary New Zealand printmaking and producing many fine prints.

As a result of more than ten years experience producing screenprints Mark has a great technical and artistic understanding of the production process that informs the creation of quality prints of his own. We are delighted to stock all prints from Mark including the popular Recession and two brand new Tiki prints, Red Hot and Amigos.