Bill Hammond

Hammond was born in Christchurch on 29 August 1947.[5] He attended Burnside High School.[6] He went on to study at the Ilam School of Fine Arts of the University of Canterbury from 1966 until 1969.[6][7][8] Before embarking on his career in art, he worked in a sign factory, made wooden toys, and was a jewellery designer.[9] He also had a keen interest in music, serving as the percussionist for a jug band.[5]

Hammond started to exhibit his works in 1980,[5] and went back to painting on a full-time basis one year later.[10] His first solo exhibition came in March 1987, at the Peter McLeavey Gallery in Wellington. This was followed by over 20 further exhibitions at the aforementioned gallery.[5]

One of Hammond's best known work was the painting Waiting for Buller (1993).[11] This was in reference to Walter Lawry Buller, the first New Zealander ornithologist who wrote A History of New Zealand Birds in 1873.[5] Hammond was particularly interested in the contradictions in Buller's life, in how he documented birds while being a hunter and taxidermist.[12] Another noted piece of his was Fall of Icarus (1995),[13] which explores the effects of the colonisation on the country,[9] and is exhibited at Christchurch Art Gallery.[5] The Guardian described this as "his most famous work".[9] His painting Bone Yard, Open Home (2009) was the largest single piece of canvas he painted,[6] with a width of more than four metres.[14]

The overarching theme of Hammond's work was social and environmental issues. Specifically, it touched on the imperiled state of both,[5] as well as the destruction brought on by colonisation.[9] His paintings feature two common themes: references to popular music and gaunt creatures with avian heads and human limbs.[15][16] The characters in Hammond's paintings, which were often anthropomorphic animals, rarely move away from their natural habitat and are in no hurry.[10] Humans are notably absent from his works during the later part of his career, which was influenced by his visit to the Auckland Islands in 1989.[5][9] Two signature colors employed by Hammond were emerald green and gold.[10] He was also at the forefront of the Post-colonial Gothic movement. This ultimately became "one of the most influential tendencies in New Zealand painting" at the turn of the 3rd millennium.[12]

Hammond eschewed giving interviews[9] and guarded his privacy.[6] He died on the evening of 30 January 2021, at the age of 73.[5] He was labelled as one of the country's "most influential contemporary painters" by Radio New Zealand.[5]

• Chartwell Collection at the Auckland Art Gallery[17]
• Christchurch Art Gallery[18]
• Fletcher Trust Collection[19]
• Museum of New Zealand[20]
• Sarjeant Gallery[21]
• University of Auckland Art Collection[22]
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London.[23]

• NZ Artists online gallery and biography