Rudolf Boelee
Not all of Boelee's work is political. In formal terms the works are elegant, 'modern'. They have a quiet dignity, persuasively claiming the surrounding space. Brought up in densely populated Rotterdam the artist seems now to make work that provides liberation for the eye and mind. A meditative moment. When we see one of the Crown Lynn Vases it is not the history of the pottery works within the context of NZ social history that first springs to mind. More likely the organically shaped yet smoothly manufactured form of indeterminate scale and inconceivable use provides a visual delight. Our eyes flow over the corrugations, up and down the curvaceous silhouette, bouncing from one colour to the next.

So too the New Zealand Railway Cups. While the point about cultural nostalgia is made, the aesthetics transcend the everydayness of the object, transcend everyday concerns and politics. The form is not always fully described. At times the field slips through into the figure pervading the work as a cool swathe of lacquered colour in a space without illusion. These are pure pictures.