Pat Hanly: The Seven Ages of Man

An exhibition that focuses on seven paintings, titled The Seven Ages of Man, which were commissioned from Pat Hanly (1932-2004) by Hamish Keith for the then new Medical School ‘Link’ Building at The University of Auckland, where they have been on permanent display since 1975. They have never before been exhibited publicly or seen together but are now brought together while major refurbishments take place on the Grafton Campus.

In retrospect, the Seven Ages of Man series occupies an interesting place in Pat’s oeuvre, at the mid-point of a decade in which he also completed a number of major commissions, including murals for the Christchurch Town Hall (1971) and the Auckland International Airport (1977). Philosophically, Pat started the 1970s with the Gauguin-esque Who Am I?/I Am/Do It works, beginning a period of internal exploration of evolutionary states, most notably in The Seven Ages of Man. The decade culminated with his utopian Golden Age series, but soon took a darker tone in 1981 with The End of the Golden Age, produced in response to the discord caused by the Springbok tour. Pat taught drawing from 1963 at The University of Auckland School of Architecture, where another mural was commissioned in 1982. He retired his lectureship in 1992 and also stopped painting soon after.

Public events:

Saturday 4 December, 1pm:
Photographer Gil Hanly and CNZARD Curator Andrew Clifford present a slide show of Pat Hanly’s major commissions, including intimate images of the artist at work.

Saturday 11 December, 1pm:
A screening of the 1998 Pat Hanly documentary Pacific Ikon, directed by Stewart Main who interviews Hanly in his Mt Eden home.

Thursday 16 December, 6pm:
Douglas Kahn: A Natural History of Media
Leading American sound and electromagnetic art scholar Douglas Kahn presents a lecture, introduced by Andrew Clifford. Kahn is founding Director of Technocultural Studies at University of California at Davis. He is the author of Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts (1999), co-editor of Wireless Imagination (1992), and will talk on relationships between nature and communications technology.

Saturday 18 December, 1pm:
Hamish Keith talks about his experiences as commissioner of artworks for new buildings, including the Aotea Centre, Auckland International Airport and The University of Auckland’s Medical School, where Pat Hanly’s Seven Ages of Man usually resides.

Wednesday 22 December – 5 January:
The gallery will close for Christmas at 5pm on 22 December, reopens on 5 January 2011.

Event listed by gusfishergallery

View their other events or contact promoter