Voice of mimesis

Geoff Thornley is one of New Zealand’s most dedicated abstract painters. Based in Auckland, he has exhibited regularly since the 1960s, receiving his first international exposure when he was selected for the XIII Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil in 1975. Thornely’s contribution to abstract art in New Zealand over the past fifty years has been significant, though modestly acknowledged. As is evident in the painting 'Voice of mimesis', Thornley’s is an art of astonishing subtlety. Exploring the quiet tensions between line, colour and surface, and carefully tuning those tensions to the physical presence of the viewer, Thornley creates artworks designed to receive – and repay – long and careful contemplation.

Thornley emerged in the 1970s as part of a circle of artists, including Gordon Walters and Milan Mrkusich, who found an important ally in Auckland-based art dealer Petar Vuletic. Vuletic’s tireless advocacy earned recognition for these abstract painters in New Zealand, but their profiles remained modest in comparison with other modernist painters, such as Colin McCahon and Rita Angus, whose work better aligned with the regionalist preferences of the then art establishment. Despite lingering ambivalence in New Zealand about non-objective art, Thornley’s practice in the decades since has been characterised by remarkable dedication, persistence and patience. Rather than clamouring for attention, his paintings confidently wait for us to come to them. Indeed, it is only when viewing them ‘in the flesh’ can we truly appreciate the buried linework in their layered surfaces and their delicate interplay with light.