Abstract:
Students studying New Zealand artists and their work are hampered by meagre bibliographic coverage. Those studying Fomison are no exception. Although Ian Wedde and Lara Strongman have compiled 'bibliographies' in their significant works (see 287 and 242), neither are annotated or indexed. Wedde's bibliography is not comprehensive in its coverage and Strongman's was compiled years before the retrospective exhibition Fomison: What shall we tell them?, which drew much critical attention. A large number of Fomison's paintings adorn private walls, making access difficult for the art history student. Wedde's catalogue is an excellent resource in this regard, but cannot, and does not, reproduce Fomison's entire oeuvre for viewing. An index of reproductions, covering all published material, is required to allow one to approach this goal. Fomison himself thought that his works should be available to the public and viewed as a whole (see 289). To date no work offers complete indexed and annotated bibliographic coverage of published sources by, and relating to, Tony Fomison. Fomison's status deserves such coverage.
