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Paul Johns (born 1951) is a conceptual artist and photographer living in Christchurch. Johns is one of a small number of gay artists who were early activists in New Zealand supporting and advocating for the recognition of the LGBTQ+ community in the arts.

Early history

Paul Johns  was born in Christchurch where he lives and works. He studied film making and sculpture at the Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury and in 1974 graduated with a Diploma of Fine Arts. Photographer Rhondda Bosworth was at art school with Johns in the 1970s and recalls it as a time when there was ‘a lively, “alternative” art scene, mostly sited at the down-market suburb of North Beach, involving printmakers, photographers, film-makers and musicians as well as painters and sculptors, makers of books, committed feminists, soft-drug dealers, persons of mixed gender and a prevailing atmosphere of sexual and artistic experimentation.’ Soon after leaving art school Johns developed what was to become a signature portrait style. Shooting films of his subjects he then used single frames from the processed film to create photographic portraits. Johns has said of the technique that, ‘Each shot is not just; a cursory glance — it is a close look achieved by multiple shots.”

Art career

Three years after graduating from art school Johns was awarded a grant from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand and developed a solo exhibition at the Canterbury Society of Arts Gallery (CSA). It included a steel pyramid, a chair, a television case and metronome and still photos taken from films. Critic Michael Thomas described it as ‘Austere and even “classical” ‘. The next year Johns was caught up in controversy. He had photographed an Andrew Drummond's Crucifixion performance and ten of his Polaroid images were laid on a cross when Drummond exhibited a version of the work in the CSA exhibition Platforms. The photos were confiscated by police after a complaint and would became a central feature in a court case accusing Drummond, who appeared naked on the cross, in John's photos of obscenity. The adjudicating Magistrate found that while the John's images of Drummond may have been offensive to some that the defendants were unduly sensitive to nakedness and dismissed the charges. A more conventional presentation of his work took place later in the same year. Johns and fellow artist John Hurrell helped Billy Apple create one of his site specific works in the Brooke Gifford Gallery. They constructed a new gallery space for Apple that he left empty for his own exhibition but then invited Johns and Hurrell to use as a gesture of thanks for their assistance. Johns exhibited photos of the two gallery owners Barbara Brooke and Judith MacFarlane. Nearly 50 years later photos Johns had taken of Apple were shown at Starkwhite in Auckland to demonstrate how Apple's height had decreased with age over the years.

In 1986 New Zealand's Parliament passed the Homosexual Law Reform Act decriminalising sexual relations between men aged 16 and over. Two years later Johns was involved in the ground-breaking CSA exhibition Beyond Four Straight Sides (Homosexual) led by artist Grant Lingard and including three other gay artists Grant Lingard, Trevor Fry and Paul Rayner. This is believed to be the first time that artists identifying as gay had openly shown together in a public institution in New Zealand. Art critic Pat Unger summed up, ‘The exhibition relies on shock. Perhaps bravado… but traditionally artists, as outsiders, have been the critics of society. Better they continue to provoke reaction than become partners in some great soothing art exercise.’ Johns has exhibited regularly throughout the following decades. In 2005 he was awarded the Tylee Cottage Residency managed by the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui. Johns used the opportunity to photograph around the area of Jerusalem where poet James K. Baxter had spent some time.

An exhibition held in 2009 with the lengthy title Dear Paul. Thanks for your email. Usually the Japanese Government doesn't release hunt details. Their quota for summer is around 850 Minke Whales and 20-50 Fin Whales. Kind Regards, Anna P. highlighted Johns’ increasing involvement with environmental issues. The exhibition focussed on the abusive treatment of whales. It was supported by a street poster campaign and the proceeds from sales were donated to Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd. Johns revisited this subject in 2018 with an exhibition at the Christchurch Art Gallery Paul Johns: South Pacific Sanctuary / Peraki / Banks Peninsula. In his review Andrew Paul Wood noted the melancholic nature of Johns’ work from his early homoerotic work to what Paul Wood described as, ‘a compassionate response to the marginal and a quasi-mystical yearning for universalism.’ In a similar summary, writer Peter Ireland commented on what he saw as Johns’ dual contributions, ‘firstly, he instinctively recognises the memorial power of photographs; and secondly, his conceptual range enables him to transcend the narrower borders of the medium to construct scenarios that not only reinforce commemorative associations but set up poles between which these associations shimmer with a resonance like the humming of telegraph lines.’

Collections

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery

Te Papa Tongarewa

References

1. Hay, Jennifer (30 November 2005). "Collection". The Press (Christchurch).
2. "Paul Johns". Retrieved 23 December 2024.
3. "Display Does Not Hold Together". The Press (Christchurch). 2 July 1977. p. 14. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
4. Ireland, Peter (1 March 2014). "Rhondda Bosworth: Booklet 1". EyeContact. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
5. "Movie Stills on Show". The Press (Christchurch). 25 June 1976. p. 18.
6. "1977 art awards list". The Press (Christchurch). 22 February 1977. p. 30. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
7. "Display Does Not Hold Together". The Press (Christchurch). 12 July 1977. p. 14. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
8. A Concise History of Art in Canterbury 1850-2000. Robert McDougall Art Gallery. 2000. p. 88.
9. Intervention: Post Object and Performance Art in New Zealand in 1970 and Beyond. Christchurch: Robert McDougalI Art Gallery & Annex. 2000. p. 15.
10. Curnow, Wystan; Barton, Christina; Leonard, Robert; Sleigh, Thomasin (2014). The critic's part: Wystan Curnow art writings 1971-2013. Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University Press, Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane, Qld.). Wellington, New Zealand : Brisbane, QLD: Adam Art Gallery, Te Pātaka Toi : in association with Victoria University Press ; Institute of Modern Art. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-86473-932-2. OCLC 893242413.
11. Hurrell, John (11 September 2024). "Billy Apple: Progressives and other Self-Portraits". EyeContact. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
12. Irving, Anne (Summer 1988). "Seeing Double: Beyond Four Straight Sides". Art New Zealand (49): 81.
13. McWhannell, Francis. "A Gathering Gravity: Anticipating Grant Lindgard: Needs and Desires". Retrieved 23 December 2024.
14. Unger, Pat (23 August 1988). "C.S.A. Gallery". The Press (Christchurch). p. 31. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
15. Porter, Gwynneth (Winter 2005). "Paul Johns". The New Zealand Journal of Photography (55).
16. "Paul Johns". Physics Room. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
17. "A Call to Arms". The Press (Christchurch). 4 September 2009.
18. "Paul Johns: Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary Peraki Banks Peninsula". Retrieved 23 December 2024.
19. Wood, Andrew Paul (3 December 2014). "Johns South Pacific Sanctuary/ Peraki, Banks Peninsula Curated by Ken Hall". EyeContact. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
20. Ireland, Peter (19 March 2014). "Paul Johns". EyeContact. Retrieved 23 December 2024.

• New Zealand artists
• 1951 births
• University of Canterbury alumni
• 20th-century New Zealand LGBTQ people
• New Zealand gay artists
• Artists from Christchurch
• Living people