Don Binney’s canvas featuring the distant outline of Old Man’s Head, the rocky formations of Bethells Beach or Te Henga and a large, centrally placed pukeko, is an arresting, magnificent piece that is wholly characteristic of his iconic ‘New Zealand’ paintings from the mid-seventies. The painting’s majestic calm is a fundamental element of all of Binney’s most successful paintings, which function almost as snapshots – fleeting instants that have been frozen in time thanks to the skilful handling of Binney’s brush. The visual language of the paintings is achieved through the poise of the birds, the motionless landscape forms and the still ribbons or flat expanses of ocean and sky.
Turning away from the raw energy of the distinctly American abstract expressionists, who dominated the New Zealand art scene right through the 1960s, Binney turned to the natural environment of his native country and, specifically, its bountiful ornithological history and its idiosyncratic geological formations. These elements have graced his canvases ever since and most commonly they feature together in a rich symbiosis. Although human figures rarely appear in Binney’s work, their absence functions as a place-holder for the viewer, inserting a human element into the painting by inviting and enticing the spectator to exercise a form of ownership over the view that is shown on the canvas. Ultimately, however, Binney succeeds in maintaining a distance between image and viewer primarily through the aforementioned regal serenity of his paintings. They exist at a remove precisely because they exude such an innate quietude: a composed tranquillity that is born from Binney’s love and close, personal examination of New Zealand bush and bird life. In Man’s Head from Te Henga III, Binney’s broad black outlining and blocks of pigment call to mind stained-glass windows and Paul Gauguin’s early cloisonné works, in which the post-impressionist carefully juxtaposed wedges of arbitrary colour which were contained within thick inky lines. Binney, too, largely structures his chromatic relationships through a linear language that is executed primarily in ebony. His paintings reward close inspection since these outlines are often meticulously textured, adding to the visual depth of his work while simultaneously ensuring a level of legibility. The distinctive crisp clarity of Binney’s work is a further result of his tendency to employ sharp outlines in conjunction with the typically un-modulated expanses of sky as well as the use of bright, clear colours. This lucidity is often attributed to the harshness of the New Zealand light which has captivated many national talents including Alfred Sharpe, Christopher Perkins, Rita Angus and Pat Hanly. In Binney’s paintings, this inimitable light is distilled into a hard-edged realism that maintains the integrity of the chosen view while transforming it into a product of unique artistic vision.
In true Binney style, the oversized pukeko hovers soundlessly above the still landscape of Auckland’s west coast, which stretches away from the viewer towards a small band of sapphire sea. Feet dangling and wings half-spread, the pukeko assumes a position of eternal poise as it hangs suspended against Binney’s flat, unruffled sky and wispy band of clouds. Comparatively, the pukeko’s breast offers a feast of thick daubs of oil paint that gather into an almost sculptural mass, which is then echoed in the rich impasto of the foreground foliage. The pristine beauty of the rolling hills, grass fields, dense tree-tops and sand dunes provides a comprehensive New Zealand environment, above which the pukeko floats endlessly in an azure sky. JEMMA FIELD