Dick FRIZZELL
Portrait of Dame Catherine Tizard 1991
Oil on canvas
Aotea Centre Collection, gift of the Edmiston Trust.
This portrait is of Auckland’s first female mayor, Dame Catherine Tizard, a driving force behind the development of the Aotea Centre. During her term in office the centre was built and opened. At the time it was the largest performing arts centre in New Zealand.
Dick FRIZZELL b. 1943
Born in Auckland, Dick Frizzell studied at the Canterbury School of Fine Arts between 1960-1963. Frizzell then worked in advertising until 1974 when he began to establish himself as an artist. During the nineties he taught painting at the Elam School of Art, University of Auckland.
In 1997 a retrospective exhibition of his work, Dick Frizzell: Portrait of a Serious Artiste, toured major national institutions.
Dick Frizzell: The Painter was published by Random House NZ, 2009 and in 2011 the publishing company Random House commissioned Frizzell to write It’s All About the Image - a rough guide to New Zealand Art History.
Although commissioned for the Dame Catherine portrait, Frizzell’s paintings generally draw from his commercial background with a particular interest in popular culture, art history and language. His dry humour is revealed in his often ironic and critical images.
In 2005 he was the invited artist for the Residency Programme in Antarctica.
His works are held in all the major public, corporate and private collections in New Zealand.
