Zena Abbott

Zena Abbott
Born
Zena Elva Mary Andrews

(1922-04-21)21 April 1922
Auckland, New Zealand
Died6 November 1993(1993-11-06) (aged 71)
Auckland, New Zealand
Known forWeaving, teaching

Zena Elva Mary Abbott (née Andrews, 21 April 1922 – 6 November 1993) was a New Zealand weaver.[1] Her works are held at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and the Dowse Art Museum.

Early life and introduction to weaving

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Abbott was born in Auckland in 1922.[2] Growing up in Depression-era New Zealand, Abbott left school at the age of thirteen to become a dressmaker, and was subsequently drafted into essential work during World War Two.[3] During the 1950s, she travelled around New Zealand, living in a caravan and working as a sewing machine instructor.[3]

Abbott first studied weaving with German-born weaver Ilse von Randow at the Auckland City Art Gallery in 1952.[4] Abbott acquired her own loom and began experimenting with unspun wool and natural dyes and fibres.[3]

Career as a weaver

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"Caskade" by Zena Abbott.

In 1959, her work was shown in the Auckland City Art Gallery in An Exhibition of New Zealand Craft Work, alongside artists such as Doreen Blumhardt, Barry Brickell, Len Castle, Helen Mason, Patricia Charlotte Perrin and Mirek Smíšek.[5][6]

In her work Abbott used natural and artificial dyes, and materials ranging from art silk and flax fibre to alkathene piping and burglar alarm tape.[4] From the late 1950s Abbott became interested in 'extending the traditional boundaries of weaving into three-dimensional constructions'.[4] In 1958 Abbott opened a professional handweaving studio in Blockhouse Bay, Auckland.[4] From the studio she ran a small-scale commercial operation, teaching and employing several women and selling her work through craft shops and galleries throughout New Zealand.[4][7][8][6] Abbott exported her work to Australia, and exhibited in Australia, England, Canada and the United States.[4]

In 1968, Abbott was one of the founding members of Brown's Mill Market, New Zealand’s first craft co-operative, located in an old flour mill in Durham Lane, Auckland.[9] In 1986 her work was featured in Elizabeth Eastmond and Merimeri Penfold's book Women and the arts in New Zealand - Forty Works: 1936-86: the work the authors chose to reproduce was Scrolls (1980), a large sculptural piece made up of a triptych of wall hangings and two large woven scrolls placed on the floor, which viewers were encouraged to unroll to reveal the woven text 'From thorny plants the hidden fibre', which referenced the sisal derived from cactus plants which was one of her favourite materials.[4] In 2019 to 2020 the Dowse held an exhibition on Abbott's work called Zena Abbott & Emma Fitts: Nomads.[10][11] Works of Abbott are held at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and the Dowse Art Museum.[12][13]

Ian Spalding wrote:

By her work with the Handweavers Guild and the New Zealand chapter of the World Crafts Council, by her generous sharing of techniques and by her continuing help and encouragement Zena Abbott has been an inspiration to hundreds of weavers and has made an inestimable contribution to the development of the craft in N.Z.[7]

References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zena Abbott.
  1. ^ "Abbott, Zena". Find New Zealand Artists. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  2. ^ Blumhardt, Doreen; Brake, Brian (1981). Craft New Zealand: The art of the craftsman. A.H. & A.W. Reed. p. 279. ISBN 0-589-01343-2.
  3. ^ a b c Cape, Peter (1969). Artists and Craftsmen in New Zealand. Auckland, London: Collins. pp. 153–159.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Eastmond, Elizabeth; Penfold, Merimeri (1986). Women and the arts in New Zealand - Forty Works: 1936-86. Auckland: Penguin Books. ISBN 014009234X.
  5. ^ "An Exhibition of New Zealand Craft Work August 1959" (PDF). Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. Pelorus Press. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  6. ^ a b Chitham, Karl (2019). Crafting Aotearoa : a cultural history of making in New Zealand and the wider Moana Oceania. Kolokesa Uafā Māhina-Tuai, Damian Skinner, Rigel Sorzano. Wellington, New Zealand: Te Papa Press. p. 255. ISBN 978-0-9941362-7-5. OCLC 1118996645.
  7. ^ a b Spalding, Ian. "Zena Abbott: Teacher and Innovator, Pioneer of NZ Weaving" (PDF). New Zealand Crafts. 14 (Winter 1985): 3–4. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  8. ^ Batten, Julia (November 1987). "Strokes and art attacks: Nomads on the move". Broadsheet. 153: 45–47.
  9. ^ Skinner, Damian; McCahon-Jones, Finn (2014). Fingers: Jewellery for Aotearoa New Zealand. Auckland: Bateman. pp. 26–27. ISBN 9781869538620.
  10. ^ "Zena Abbott & Emma Fitts: Nomads | The Dowse Art Museum". dowse.org.nz. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  11. ^ Wenman, Eleanor (18 September 2019). "Lower Hutt's Dowse Art Museum welcomes spring with nature-themed exhibitions". Stuff. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  12. ^ "Zena Abbott". Auckland Museum Collection Online. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  13. ^ "Zena Abbott". The Dowse Art Museum Collection Online. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
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