Tuhituhi: William Hodges, Cook's Painter in the South Pacific

Description

This study of the art of William Hodges arising from the voyage of the Resolution opens fresh theoretical perspectives on the representational problems raised by the early paintings they produced in the South Pacific. Following Pacific Island historians of the 1960s, it argues that it is possible to read the texts and visual material produced from early South Seas encounters against the grain, as moments of cross-cultural exchange that challenge postcolonial complacencies. In a detailed exploration of the background and close readings of individual paintings, this book sets forth some fresh contexts for interpreting assumptions about the representation of the Pacific islands and the 'South Seas'. Tuhituhi is presented in sections that follow the geographical and chronological progress of Cook's voyage on the Resolution, for which William Hodges was hired as official artist, Cook's landskip painter'. Painters like Hodges found themselves staring again and again in disbelief at landscapes and seascapes that stretched 18th-century conventions of painting, such as the 'picturesque', the 'sublime' and the 'beautiful'. Each chapter of Tuhituhi focuses on the close reading of a significant painting of a South Pacific location by Hodges. The last chapter considers the important influence of Hodges' work on a series of paintings by the major twentieth-century New Zealand painter Colin McCahon.

Laurence Simmons is Head of the Department of Film, Television and Media Studies at the University of Auckland. He has written extensively on Italian and New Zealand film and is also known as a writer of numerous essays on NZ painting and photography. In 2002, he published a major work on 20th-century NZ artists. His latest books include the edited volumes Speaking Truth to Power: Public intellectuals rethink New Zealand (2007) and Certain Words: John Reynolds Continues ... (2009).