Max Gimblett grew up “an only, lonely child” in Auckland, from the ’30s to the ’50s, with lots of books and trips to the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
“Growing up, my spiritual life was formed by attending the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, reading voraciously and visiting the museum, which featured extraordinary Maori culture, twice a week,” he says.
“I’ve always thought that art is alive; that modernism, in particular, has a spiritual base.
The museum in Auckland also had a tiny room dedicated to the arts of Asia, which always fascinated me, and there were copies of classical Graeco-Roman art, including the Discobolus, which have always stayed with me.”
US culture also influenced Gimblett when he was growing up: “We had American soldiers and sailors stay at our house in Grafton during World War II. As a child, their uniforms, sweets and packaging blew me away. It wasn’t English. It was bold, uncluttered, snappy and high quality.”
After heading to London, Gimblett discovered it was possible to live in the US. “It was quite radical at the time, in the late ’50s,” he says.
“For me, initially, America was freedom, expansion, anonymity and ambition. There weren’t many artists from New Zealand who were influenced by America, but I found [the work of American writer] Ernest Hemingway.
"It was gestural and action based. It had short, nearly clipped descriptions. Hemingway said he learnt how to write landscape by looking at [French painter] Cézanne. I learnt how to paint by reading Hemingway.”
Gimblett met Barbara Kirshenblatt in Toronto in 1963 (he has been married to the Canadian professor for 45 years), he studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1965 and then he returned to New Zealand a few years later.
“The light wasn’t right on the Atlantic,” Gimblett says. “One of my ideas about culture is we are all at our strongest in our childhood landscape. I’m very strong in Auckland. I stand in spots and I feel completely empowered.”
Curator and author Anne Kirker describes Gimblett as “a minimalist with passion” but he is more often considered a modernist spiritual artist. His work is frequently based on motifs and symbols and he lists Carl Jung, Zen Buddhism, calligraphy and Chinese and Japanese poetry among his influences.
“My work is very heavily influenced by Asia,” he says. “I’ve been drawing in an American abstract expressionist/Japanese sumi ink mode since the mid-1960s.”
Gimblett and his wife spent seven years travelling around the US before settling in New York.
“At the time [early ’70s] New York was the crossroad of culture,” he says.
In 1974 he rented a studio in a downtown building on Bowery Street (where pop artists James Rosenquist and the late Tom Wesselmann also lived) and it has been the couple’s home ever since.
“At age 72, my work is now very intuitive,” Gimblett says. “I’ve trained myself to do a lot of painting without thinking. I’ve worked hard to come to a point where I can trust my intuition and I’m able to edit my work rather than destroy it because of some emotional outburst.
"I still work hard, about eight to 10 hours a day, six days a week, but now my process and methodology is much more refined and I’m producing some of the finest work of my life.”
Gimblett has reached one of the highest points in his career, having been selected to exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum (New York) in January 2009.
His work will appear in an exhibition titled “American Art and the East”, curated by Alexandra Munroe. The exhibition has a 485-page catalogue and will travel to three other locations in the US, Europe and Asia.
Of the work Gimblett will exhibit, author Wystan Curnow says: “Max is emotional – the work embodies a mighty spectrum of feeling and he doesn’t shy from big themes.
"Violence, sacrifice and death; fear and awe; beauty, pleasure, peace and joy – [they] all play a role. His works engage both ends of the sublime, the negative (terror, fear and awe) and the positive (beauty and uplift).”
“What this exhibition means to me is what I would call karma,” Gimblett says. “It means my life has followed its true path and my dreams as a child have become my actions as a man.
“I’ve been painting for 45 years and I’ve had somewhat modest success in America. Up until now, American art has been mainly influenced by Europe. It’s only just opened up to Asia and the Pacific. Luckily I’m fit and well, I have great co-workers and I’m ready for this new wave of interest. Mother Pacific has finally arrived!
“I return to New Zealand twice a year. I adore New Zealand. This year I’m teaching at Auckland University as the Inaugural Visiting Professor of Art of the National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries. I’m also giving critiques at the Elam School of Fine Art in June. Though I’ve lived in America for a long time, I’m still a very loyal Kiwi.”
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington, opening May 27, 2008
Guggenheim Museum, New York, opening January 31, 2009
Haines Gallery, San Francisco, opening March 5, 2009
Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, opening June 23, 2009
Nadene Milne Gallery, Arrowtown, opening 2009
For more information please check out Max Gimblett's website.
