About
Karl Maughan
b. 1964 Wellington, New Zealand
Lives and works in Auckland
Karl Maughan is recognised for his hyper-real paintings of lush gardens and native fauna - flower gardens, vegetable gardens, manicured bushes and out-of-control wildernesses - Maughan finds inspiration in them all. At first Maughan began painting these settings in the great tradition of ‘plein-air’ - in the outdoors. However, struggling with changeable elements such as wind, light and weather became too problematic. Painting outdoors also became an issue when Maughan relocated to London in the 1990’s. Based there for many years, cooped up in a studio in the East End, Maughan found that he missed the wide open spaces and lushness found in New Zealand gardens. Maughan began to source a growing archive, capturing gardens on film, to take back to his studio where he could then play and reinvent colours, lighting and perspectives. The resulting works were an explosion of colour, encompassing viewers in surrealist fantasy landscapes.
“These painted gardens are carefully stage managed, their flowers chosen as compositional elements rather than as representatives of any particular flora. Maughan aims to show things as they are seen - even if they have been wilfully transplanted. This well-honed naturalism tends to overlook the down-side of the natural cycle: rot, wilt and insect strike are banished in the cultivation of the ideal. Other elements are added, transposed and intensified, as required. Decisions are made as the work progresses, to enliven the surface and take it beyond the limiting challenges of rendering a photograph.” (Richard Wolfe, “Interflora”, Art New Zealand, #97 / Summer 2000, p. 65)
Maughan loves the narratives that viewers create for themselves as they enter his paintings. Viewers can fanaticise walking along the garden paths, among the super-bright flowers and sunlight-dappled bushes. “I’m interested in all the cultural associations we all have with the idea of the garden. They are a central part of the idea of civilisation, the first instance of humans asserting their control over nature.” A human-urge does exist to control the wilderness - engaging in pruning, planting, landscaping and pest-control, in the quest for beautiful surroundings. Maughan’s gardens are just that - beautiful, without flaw or any sign of decomposing.
Although by description Maughan has been painting the same subject for many years, the works have developed considerably within this time. Less thick and painterly, the surface of the recent works is fairly abstracted when looked at closely. Brushstrokes are deliberate and distinct in the manner of Impressionist painters such as Monet and Seurat. When viewed from a distance however, the effect is almost photographic. These works move between the technical virtuosity of the super-realists and the tactile pleasures of expressionism.
Maughan’s paintings “exude confidence and colour, ….broad brushstrokes of bright paint, rapidly applied over shaded areas of the canvas, produce [sic.] an ultra realistic chiaroscuro-modelled three dimensional space, with great attention to the fall of shadow - brightly coloured brushes casting long shadows over Rita Angus green lawns. In fact, the impeccable technique mimics the perfection of the gardens, as if untouched by human hands.” (Christopher Harrod, 'Karl Maughan, Jo Pegler, Emily Wolf' in NZ Art Monthly, Dec 05/Jan 06) Maughan has long aspired to working on a huge-scale saying in 1998 - “It would be great to do some McCahon-sized walk-along sort of stuff”. Large mural works to date have included A Clear Day, 2000 (Collection of Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington), The Stranger, 2002 (Collection of Sky City, Auckland), and a six-panel painting for the foyer of the Sky City Grand Hotel, Auckland in 2005.
Maughan is unlikely to give up his primary subject matter saying he finds endless inspiration in it. In the past few years however, works have become less focussed on garden and more concerned with the landscape. Rolling hills and tall trees have started to populate his backdrops. This is the artist taking a step back and viewing his subject within a larger context.
Maughan holds a Master of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts (Auckland University, 1987), and has been exhibiting in solo and group shows ever since. In 1998 two works were purchased for the highly prestigious Charles Saatchi collection (UK), with a number of further major commissions internationally resulting from this. Maughan’s work is held in private collections in New Zealand, Australia, Asia and the UK. After over ten years based in London, Maughan re-established himself in New Zealand in early 2005, returning to the original visual source of his paintings. A major retrospective and publication on Maughan’s was shown at Te Manawa Museum in Palmerston North in late 2007.
Education
1983-87, Elam School of Fine Arts, Master of Fine Arts Auckland, New Zealand
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2011 Idlewild, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2009 Everyday is like Sunday, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Blackbarn Gallery, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
2008 Martin Browne Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2007/2008 On a Clear Day, Te Manawa Gallery, Palmerston North
2007 Recent Paintings and Prints, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
2006 Outside, Martin Browne Fine Art, Potts Point, Sydney, Australia
2005 Kimbolton, Milford Galleries, Dunedin, New Zealand
2004 Karl Maughan: Recent Paintings, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2003 Park Lane, Vertigo Gallery, London, UK
Blow Up, St. Pauls Gallery, Birmingham, UK
The Visitor, Gow Langsford Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Walking in Light, Vertigo Gallery, London, UK
2002 Garden Centre, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2001 Milford Galleries, Dunedin, New Zealand
Art Lab, Imperial College Exhibition, London, UK
2000 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Karl Maughan, Art Hotel, Florence, Italy
1999 Crowd, Vynel St, London, England
Karl Maughan, Habitat, London, England
1998 Karl Maughan: Landscapes (with Dick Frizzell), Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland,New Zealand
1997 Great Outdoors, Tinakori Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Brooker Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
1996 Day Night, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Love Lies Bleeding, Milford Galleries, Dunedin, New Zealand
1995 Green Triumph, Brooker Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
1994 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1993 Brooker Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Milford Galleries, Dunedin, New Zealand
1992 CSA Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand
1991 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1990 Brooker Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
1989 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1988 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Brooker Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
1987 Garden Series II, Brooker Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Selected Group Exhibitions
2009 John Leech and Gow Langsford Galleries Spring Catalogue Exhibition 2009, Gow Langsford Gallery
2008 Clock the Ton, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Spring Catalogue 2008, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2007 In Fluorescents, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
2006 Chosen, Milford Galleries, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Frieze, Milford Galleries, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Summer Show, Milford Galleries, Duneden, New Zealand
2005 Karl Maughan, Jo Pegler and Emily Wolf, Tinakori Gallery, Wellington
Frieze,
Auckland Art Fair, New Zealand
Recent Floral Works, Milford Galleries, Dunedin, New Zealand
20 Days in Bloom, Artis Gallery, Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand.
2001 Parade, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand
1998 Saatchi Collection Catalogue Show, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
(Re)visioning the Real, Lopdell House Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand (touring exhibition)
1997 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 20, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK
Under Growth, Holly St Studios, London, UK
MNZA: Landscape, Milford Galleries, Dunedin, New Zealand
1996 NZ Real Milford Galleries, Dunedin, New Zealand
1995 Blindfield, Coventry Gallery, London, UK
Catalogue Exhibition Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Stop Making Sense, City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
1993 Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton, New Zealand
1990 Robert McDougall Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand
Selected Corporate Collections
Fletcher Challenge Limited, Auckland, New Zealand
Saatchi & Saatchi, Wellington, New Zealand
Saatchi Collection, London, UK
Te Papa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand
Sky City Casino
Sky City Grand
Selected Bibliography
Brown, Warwick, 100 New Zealand Paintings, 1995, p49
Gregg, Stacy The Flower and the Glory, Sunday Star Times, February 1 1998
Jennings, Nicola, On a Clear Day, Exhibition Catalogue, Te Manawa Art Gallery, Palmerston North, 2007
Lopdell House Gallery, (Re)visioning the Real, exhibition catalogue, 1998
Milford Galleries, 3 Major Surveys-Modern New Zealand Art, exhibition catalogue, 1997
The Saatchi Gallery, The New Neurotic Realism, collection catalogue, 1998
John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 20, catalogue, 1997
Somerville, Jane, New Work; Karl Maughan, Artworld, issue 2, April/May, 2008, pp144-147
Thomson, Joelle, Into the Garden, Mindfood, issue 2, May, 2008, pp136-139
Wolfe, Richard, Interflora, Karl Maughan Paints in the Face of Nature, Art New Zealand 97, Summer 2000 pg 62 - 65