Waikato Landscape

In 1985, Dick Frizzell’s work changed direction. This is the artist’s first landscape, a work done experimentally, since he had never regarded himself as part of New Zealand’s extensive landscape tradition. Frizzell has produced many landscapes since, some of them very large. As in his earlier ‘New Image’ still lifes, Frizzell sought to debunk popular myths. Using a rough kind of realism, he makes ironic commentary on so many carefully painted, atmospheric landscapes. Although ironic deflation is a more important feature of Frizzell’s art than is generally realised, his later landscapes have tended to blur the ambiguities of the earlier ones, a factor that has made them increasingly popular.