Ross Ritchie
It is difficult to assume a place into which the painter Ross Ritchie easily fits.
This is less a problem with others born during the early nineteen-forties, such as Don Binney, Philip Trusttum, Gretchen Albrecht or Geoff Thornley, who have secured firm places within the context of New Zealand painting. Unlike them, Ross Ritchie seems elusive: a painter who courts the enigmatic. Ritchie is an artist set among others whose reputations are established, yet with him it is a claim that may seem to be less firmly secured.
The manner he has adopted for exhibiting his work has contributed to this impression. Participation has almost exclusively involved exhibitions shared with two, three or five other artists, as well as inclusion in anthology-type exhibitions such as those mounted by the Auckland City Art Gallery from 1964 to 1967 and in 1971; in the Commonwealth Institute exhibition in London, 1965; and in the two group shows organized for Melbourne in 1965 and Sydney in 1966.
Art New Zealand,
Gordon H. Brown.
Like many painters, Ross Ritchie is a highly competent craftsman
who uses his command over technique, not for purposes of virtuoso
display, but to control and assist the subject of a painting. The
cleverness of the 'slick' painter is not allowed to come between
the spectator and the subject, no matter what form of expression
this may take. Subject and technique are part of the painting's
total entity-not separate issues. Just the same, his natural
dexterity as a painter can at times act as a shield protecting the
quiet introspective core that Ritchie seeks to maintain in his
work. Initially the underlying issue of artistic 'integrity barely
concerned him: but within a few years it became an important factor
in his consciousness.
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GORDON H. BROWN Art New Zealand, 2000
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