ON THE FASCINATION OF MATTHYS GERBER FOR THEO SCHOON.
In 2003, six years after seeing a 1950’s painting by Theo Schoon in a catalogue, Matthys Gerber painted Mr Theo Schoon, as a homage to the New Zealand artist who died in Sydney in 1985 aged seventy. Gerber’s painting is surprising because Schoon is virtually unknown in Australia, and rarely discussed as a figure of influence on contemporary art in New Zealand, even though he is the subject of long and deep consideration by Leonard Bell, Michael Dunn, Francis Pound, and Damien Skinner. The painting is also surprising because Gerber is not from New Zealand. But there are precedents for the citation of New Zealand artists in the work of Australian artists, and the most widely known is Imants Tillers’ infolding of Colin McCahon’s painting One (1965) in a work titled The Hyperborean and the Speluncar (1986). Australian and New Zealand artists have a history of declaring their connectivity to other artists on the surfaces of their work, and Colin McCahon’s painting Here I give Thanks to Mondrian (1961) is a classic regional example but also a pertinent one to cite since Gerber’s homage to Theo Schoon, like McCahon’s homage to Mondrian, is painted in words.
Ian Burn claimed that artists make Art History by infusing history into the creative process.1 With Mr Theo Schoon the history is emblazoned in words across the surface and since Schoon does not have a prominent place in art history, Gerber’s painting could be described as revisionist. Schoon’s name is painted in striking colours and in typography reminiscent of cinema and advertising. Like Edward Ruscha who also made words into pictures and pictures into words, Gerber has designed the words to mimic... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline