Seamly exercises

Seamly exercises

“E rata atu ana angeau ki te toi e pākīkī ana ki a ia anō, arā he tūrangahapa peange, heoi anō tōna wana nui, he titiro māori atu ki ngā mea māori me te kore pēhi atu. Kāore au i te rata ki te toi whakataratara e aukati ana, e tūkino hoki ana i ngā mea ka pā atu, erangi he pārekareka tonu te toi e mārama ana ki tōna katoa, waihoki ko tōna mōhio ka hapa, ka hē peange.”
- Nā Tom Kreisler, i a ia e kōrero ana ki Fiona Clark, 1986.

He maroke, he whakaiti, he tōtika hoki te āhua o ngā tānga tohu a Tom Kreisler. Mehemea ko ngā ingoa hei tohu i te whakatoi, ko tā ngā mahi toi he whakatinana i tōna aronga. Ka patua te ngoikore o te reo. I roto tonu i ngā mahi a Kreisler, ka whati te rere o ngā kupu me ngā āhua o ia rā, me te aha he rāhiri hapa, he whakapōrearea, he whakaawe rānei i te kaewa o te hinengaro.

Ka whakaputa te taonga nei i tōna tikanga mā ngā “maurua”. E whakahau ana tōna ingoa i ngā tuitui e whakararu ana i te āhua, me te aha ka taiāwhio ngā āhua pīoioi, kōpikopiko hoki i te wā ka rawekehia te tikanga o te “āhua” – he whai tikanga, he whai rānei i ngā āhuatanga kua āta whakaritea. Ka puare tonu ki te kaititiro hei kōwhiringa māna, mēnā rarahi e neke haere ana, he whanaketanga i a ia anō, he whenumitanga o te hari noa rānei.

I whānau mai a Kreisler i Āketina i te tau 1938, ko tōna matua he Hanakāria, ko tōna whaea he Atēriana, ā, i hūnuku mai ki Ōtautahi i te tau 1952 i muri i te matenga o tōna matua. I te tau 1968, ka tau mai ia ki Ngāmotu, ki te taha o tōna hoa rangatira, ko Lesley, i puta ai ia hei kaiako, hei kaiarataki matua ki ngā uki ringatoi, hei ringa hāpai matua i te whare o Govett-Brewster, hei ringatoi moroki i whakawhanake i te whānuitanga me te oranga tonutanga o te tinana o tēnei kātū mahi.


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“I like that art that constantly questions itself, that appears to be aloof, but is passionate, that looks at ordinariness and ordinary things without wishing to colonise them. I don’t like art that is so aggressive that it excludes and destroys all that it touches, but I do like an art that understands the totality of its own existence, that is at the same time conscious of its own fallibility.”
— Tom Kreisler, in conversation with Fiona Clark, 1986

Tom Kreisler’s work is characterised by dry wit, irreverence and deceptively unembellished, graphic mark making. If his titles function as set ups to a joke, his paintings deliver the punchline. They claw at the capacity and shortcomings of language. In Kreisler’s work, words and images, far from forming a direct line in the flow of everyday communication, short circuit themselves, inviting hiccups, interruptions or possibilities for the imagination to drift.

This painting appears to generate meaning around its “seams.” Its title could gesture to the visible stiches which interrupt the image, around which sketched figures bend and splay, as well as playing upon the definition of “seemly”—defined as decency, or compliance with notions of propriety. It’s left open to the viewer to decide whether these figures, rendered with limbs and appendages overdrawn and apparently in motion, are performing acts of solitary self-improvement, or joyful union.

Born in 1938 in Argentina, to a Hungarian father and an Austrian mother, Kreisler moved to Ōtautahi Christchurch in 1952, following the death of his father. In 1968, he settled in Ngāmotu New Plymouth, with his wife Lesley, where he would become a key teacher mentor to generations of practitioners, a lifelong supporter of the Govett-Brewster, and a committed contemporary artist who developed a complex and enduring body of work.
— Simon Gennard, 2026