Kaleidoscope - Toss Woollaston

Television New Zealand’s flagship 80s arts show looks at Sir Toss Woollaston — a pioneer of modern art in New Zealand. Topics include his development as an artist and the “struggle of painting” against accepted conventions, difficult years trying to support a family, the influence of his wife, and the liberation he felt in his mid-50s when he could finally earn a living from painting. Woollaston is blunt but generous with his time and opinions. There are precious riffs off his famous description of wanting to paint the sunlight in a landscape, “after it had been absorbed by the earth”.

I am not going to feel good if I try to explain to anybody why I paint. I talk a lot of nonsense. They can find out for themselves, if they want to, by looking at the painting. But I will not tell them ... or analyse.

– Toss Woollaston on art criticism

Key Cast & Crew

Howard Taylor

Director

Alison Parr

Director, Reporter

Denis Harvey

Producer

Michael Barry

Studio Director

Stephen Payne

Technical Producer

Glenn Fitzgerald

Sound Mix