PROVENANCE
Paul & Kerry Barber Collection Bev & Murray Gow Collection Investment & Affordable Art, Dunbar Sloane 25/11/2004

The Barber Collection boasts numerous excellent examples of New Zealand modernism. This is partly a reflection of Paul and Kerry's journey as collectors - having travelled and spent time in Europe, their exposure to modern art equipped them to meaningfully engage with the New Zealand response. This blue-hued oil painting by Charles Tole The Blue Fence is the collection's finest example of New Zealand cubism; it expresses raw, pure engagement with the landscape. While the Barbers were able to draw direct links between European and New Zealand modernism, Charles Tole's initial exposure to cubism was less direct.

After being taught to paint by his older brother John, Charles learnt the formal principles and theory of cubism from John Weeks. It may be thanks to this slight disconnect from the primary source of cubism that his work was able to acquire such a distinct industrial, post-cubist bent. In The Blue Fence, beams of light are presented in vertical facets, and a single blue fence becomes complex. Lending itself to every vantage point, the fence is sharp and flat with angles suggesting that what we see is only a facade. Its depth, and the crisp penetration of pencil on oil, has an effect that is both confounding and satisfying.