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Between the Lives: Partners in Art is a fascinating book about artists who are also intimate partners. It takes nine well-known New Zealand couples and explores many aspects of their lives but particularly how the partnership affects the art they produce. Written by perceptive and knowledgeable writers, the chapters combine the best of academic scholarship with skilful, absorbing storytelling. They cast fresh light on paintings, poems and films and make a significant contribution to our understanding of how art has been produced in this country. Repeated themes are the situation of women and the strains of producing serious art in a small and isolated country. There are also contrasts, which are equally striking, as different couples have negotiated their own ways of accommodating two powerful creative talents. The partners include the Hanlys, McCahons, Siddells, Hodgkins and Richmond, Baxters, Smithymans, Haywards, Woollastons, Campbells -- nine painters, six poets, two filmmakers and a photographer.
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Reviews
Landfall - Bride Lonie
“Deborah Shepard’s careful introduction outlines the broader contexts of the period and the issues that faced these couples, particularly the women. She opens with an image of Anne and Colin McCahon, which she reads as a moment of stability and optimism, before Anne had given up her art. She acknowledges that things were also difficult for the men. She lays out the many of the problems but returns firmly to the ‘importance of the couple relationship and its interconnectedness with the art that pours forth.’ Between the Lives: Partners in Art is far more than a set of biographies. Its contribution to an understanding of the ways that art and its making were gendered in this country is significant."
New Zealand Books - Jane Westaway
"In her introduction Shepard accuses New Zealand art historians for failing to “read between the lives” of artists and their spouses: not recognizing the role of their wives in creating the art of McCahon, Woollaston, Hanly and others: being blind to the fact that Anne McCahon, for instance, was her husband’s most intelligent critic with an unwavering belief in his ability, and that, somewhere along the line, this underminded her own artistic drive. Shepard notes how at odds this collaborative view is with the the persistent Romantic ideal of the artist struggling alone with his muse, a superior being with no need of hot meals and laundry services, not to mention affectionate sex… The stories and photographs – in this book take their terrible poignancy from the fact that love does indeed overcome all, including quite often those who must endure it. "
“Deborah Shepard’s careful introduction outlines the broader contexts of the period and the issues that faced these couples, particularly the women. She opens with an image of Anne and Colin McCahon, which she reads as a moment of stability and optimism, before Anne had given up her art. She acknowledges that things were also difficult for the men. She lays out the many of the problems but returns firmly to the ‘importance of the couple relationship and its interconnectedness with the art that pours forth.’ Between the Lives: Partners in Art is far more than a set of biographies. Its contribution to an understanding of the ways that art and its making were gendered in this country is significant."
New Zealand Books - Jane Westaway
"In her introduction Shepard accuses New Zealand art historians for failing to “read between the lives” of artists and their spouses: not recognizing the role of their wives in creating the art of McCahon, Woollaston, Hanly and others: being blind to the fact that Anne McCahon, for instance, was her husband’s most intelligent critic with an unwavering belief in his ability, and that, somewhere along the line, this underminded her own artistic drive. Shepard notes how at odds this collaborative view is with the the persistent Romantic ideal of the artist struggling alone with his muse, a superior being with no need of hot meals and laundry services, not to mention affectionate sex… The stories and photographs – in this book take their terrible poignancy from the fact that love does indeed overcome all, including quite often those who must endure it. "