The 1960s and early 1970s was the age of High Modernism. Growing up in Masterton at this time, Modernism didn’t feel like a movement so much as a visual expression of the mood of the times - optimistic and forward looking.

This was best expressed in some of the architecture. Today you will see touches of Modernist architecture around the Wairarapa from holiday homes at Riversdale, to public architecture like the War Memorial Pool and Hall, to homes in Lansdowne.

The Wairarapa also had a direct connection with significant Post World War II British Modernist abstract sculptor Barbara Hepworth, one of whose works was bought by the Wairarapa Art Centre.

These historical echoes reverberate through the abstract paintings and sculptures in this exhibition which are Regional in that they express to some degree the colours and moods of the Wairarapa.

The paintings are Modular Abstracts in that any number of combinations are possible. The sculptures are pure abstracts in keeping with the aesthetic of Post World War II abstract sculpture.

The works have been created for my “imaginary” collector, the avant garde twenty-first century dweller of the Wairarapa who, like their forebears in the 1960s and early 1970s, viewed the future with a sense of optimism.

David Famularo

2008