Gretchen Albrecht Sea Region

“For Gretchen Albrecht the sea’s locale has always been one of the most important vehicles for her study of light’s action. The sea’s light became an enlarged cosmological phenomenon and expanded her knowledge of the coast’s brightness, the wind’s illumination, the earth’s luminosity and the glow of memory.”1

1 Ron Brownson, Gretchen Albrecht: Illuminations (Auckland: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 2002), 18.

Gretchen Albrecht’s distinctive stained canvases have become embedded in New Zealand art history. With their subtle gradations and immersive sweeps of colour, these works are strikingly different to the hard-edged painting of some of her abstractionist contemporaries, such as Geoff Thornley and Stephen Bambury.

In the 1970s, Albrecht moved firmly into abstract painting from an early practice that engaged in gestural figurative painting and still lifes. These new works were created using a speed brush, which allowed her to charge the brush with a large amount of diluted paint and physically stain the unprimed canvas. This unique shift in approach brought critical acclaim. According to art historian Luke Smyth, “The arrival of the early stained canvases marked a watershed moment in Albrecht’s career... Her debut presentation of the stained canvases earned her widespread acclaim, with critics declaring her new paintings her most accomplished works to date.”2

This work was painted in 1976 and exhibited the following year at Barry Lett Galleries. When first viewed, the stained canvas works appear to eschew recognisable forms for pure abstraction. However, Albrecht’s abstraction was always firmly rooted in her beloved landscape of the Auckland coastal regions — as evidenced by the title here.

Sea Region showcases the alluring colours and masterful blends that the artist is particularly known for. The painting is largely comprised of a plane of graduated blue tones with a striking swathe of pink at the bottom of the picture plane and bands of white and purple at the top. The large scale invites the viewer to become almost enveloped by these saturated colours. As with all the stained canvas works, the painting never feels overproduced or forced — the luscious tones are effortless, seeming as though they have bloomed onto the canvas of their own accord.

12 Louise Henderson

October 1987 oil on canvas

2470 × 1500mm

EST $100,000 — $150,000

PROVENANCE

Robert Bates Collection, housed in the Kauri Grove Collection, Auckland. Aquired privately, c1994.

From The Twelve Months series.

Louise Henderson: From Life, Auckland Art Gallery

Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland, 2019-2020, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Christchurch, 2020; Months of The Year, Charlotte H Galleries, Auckland, May–June 1987.

Felicity Milburn, Lara Strongman and Julia Waite (editors), Louise Henderson From Life (Auckland and Christchurch: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, 2019), 189, 151.