’A New Lord Demanding much Attention’: Unpacking Michael Illingworth

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the artist Michael Illingworth. Its main purpose is to investigate the processes through which Illingworth has been constructed as the outsider in New Zealand art history. It explores the importance of the outsider mythology to Illingworth's artistic ideals and practice, and investigates the presentation, accommodation and reception of this practice within New Zealand art history and its related discourses. The thesis seeks to place the artist within the cultural traditions, developments and contexts in which he operated. This approach counters the regular casting of Illingworth as an idiosyncratic painter who is divorced from culture and society, a construct that has structured the ways the artist and his work have been understood. This thesis has several appendices, including an annotated catalogue of works from the Illingworth Estate collection and a complete exhibition history and bibliography.