Rodney Kennedy, a life in art

Abstract

Rodney Eric Kennedy (1909 - 1989) has long been of interest to historians because of his friendships with a number of significant figures in New Zealand cultural history. He has been consulted by those writing about such important individuals as R.N. Field, Sir Mountford Tosswill Woollaston, Colin McCahon, Doris Lusk and Ursula Bethell among others. It has long been claimed that he was not merely a witness to important events but that he helped shape the culture. This he did through an exercise of taste. This thesis examines this claim in a number of ways. 1) It examines the friendships noted above in the context of his life. It is not, however a complete biography. 2) It briefly examines his career in theatre. While theatre is not the focus of this work his practice offers insights into his ideas on culture. 3) It examines his brief career as an artist and reproduces all six of his surviving paintings. Some of these are here reproduced for the first time. 4) It examines his engagement with various institutions dedicated to the encouragement of artists, especially the Hocken Library. 5) It discusses his own collection of art. The conclusion reached is that Rodney Kennedy did indeed have a significant effect on the development of a distinctive culture in New Zealand. His interventions were unusual in that they were not a consequence of extraordinary wealth or high intellectual standing. His influence was exercised through friendship, personal contact and a keen eye for a good painting. His artist friends respected him partly because he was an artist himself and was able to exercise both fine aesthetic judgements and an understanding of the difficulties that faced an artist. It is concluded that such informal engagement was particularly effective during the period up until the mid-1960s when there were few formal mechanisms for the support of artists.