Greer Lascelles Twiss (born 23 June 1937) is a New Zealand sculptor, and in 2011 was the recipient of an Icon Award from the

Arts Foundation of New Zealand The Arts Foundation of New Zealand Te Tumu Toi is a New Zealand arts organisation that supports artistic excellence and facilitates private philanthropy through raising funds for the arts and allocating it to New Zealand artists. The foundatio ...

, limited to 20 living art-makers.

Career

Twiss was born in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

on 23 June 1937, taking up sculpture in the 1950s. He graduated from

Elam School of Fine Arts The Elam School of Fine Arts, founded by John Edward Elam, is part of the University of Auckland Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries, Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries at the University of Auckland. It offered the first Bachelor of ...

in 1960 with a Diploma of Fine Arts with honours. In 1965, he received a QEII Arts Council Travel Grant, which he used to study

lost-wax casting Lost-wax castingalso called investment casting, precision casting, or ''cire perdue'' (; borrowed from French)is the process by which a duplicate sculpture (often a metal, such as silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is cast from an original scul ...

in Europe. He is best known for his works in bronze. In 1966, he was appointed as a lecturer at Elam, and he eventually became the head of sculpture there in 1974. He retired in 1998. Twiss primarily focused on life-sized sculptures in the 1960s, including the fibreglass series ''Frozen Frames'', and the 1969 bronze sculpture and fountain '' Karangahape Rocks''. By the 1970s, Twiss began focusing on creating works that sound freestand within gallery spaces. Works such as ''Barriers'' ''Site/Sight Works'' and ''Tripods'' are pieces which date from the mid-1970s, which explore spatial definition. In 1989, Twiss spent two months living in Europe, inspired to utilise the ideas he had developed there in his later works, such as ''Scene One Act One'', a work where Twiss explored the differences between expectations of travel and reality.

Works

His works are in the

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions. Set be ...

. He has participated in many exhibitions including ''Volume and Form'', Singapore; ''Content/Context'' at Shed 11 - Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa; and ''Aspects of Recent New Zealand Art'',

Auckland City Art Gallery Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions. Set be ...

. He has been the subject of two retrospective presentations by the

City Gallery Wellington City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi is a public art gallery in Wellington, New Zealand. History City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi began its life as the Wellington City Art Gallery on 23 September 1980 in a former office block located at 65 ...

and by the Auckland Art Gallery. His work, ''Flight Trainer for Albatross'', stands at the entrance of the Auckland viaduct on Princes Wharf. and his large-scale bronze ''Karangahape Road Fountain'' has been a fixture of Pigeon Park at the intersection of

Karangahape Road Karangahape Road (commonly known as K' Road) is one of the main streets in the Auckland CBD, central business district (CBD) of Auckland, New Zealand. The massive expansion of motorways through the nearby inner city area – and subsequent flig ...

and Symonds Street since 1969.

Honours and recognition

Twiss was a guest contributor to the sculpture park at the

Seoul Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

. In the 2002 Queen's Birthday and Golden Jubilee Honours, Twiss was appointed an

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit () is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have r ...

for services to sculpture, and in 2011 he received an Arts Foundation Icon Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Twiss, Greer 1937 births Living people Artists from Auckland Elam Art School alumni Academic staff of the University of Auckland 20th-century New Zealand sculptors Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit