BINNEY, Don, 1940-
In the Lee of a Looted Island (Painting)
Interviewed for the May 1966 edition of the
Barry Lett newsletter to coincide with his
Auckland Festival exhibition, Don Binney
responded affirmatively when asked if there
was a peculiar sort of light in New Zealand
that influenced his way of seeing. The
interviewer was summarising Auckland Art
Gallery director Peter Tomory’s introduction to
a catalogue of painting shown at the
Commonwealth Institute in London in 1965: “in
these islands, the Pacific light burns and
bleaches, so that in high summer, black and
white predominate”. Don had only been out of
the country a few times to Australia, but he
reported “seeing New Zealand for the first time
after two weeks away…one had the impression
of an iron land, strong and clear in this light.”
As a fiercely nationalist painter, Don Binney
laboured to try and convey the power and
simplicity of that vision.
