09/09/2026
Barry Cleavin (1939-2026)
Such huge sadness at the passing of this witty, accomplished master of the printmaking craft. Barry Cleavin was regarded by many as New Zealand’s most important and influential printmaker, and he received critical acclaim internationally. He used labour-intensive age-old techniques to produce artworks of extraordinary precision – and political/social incisiveness.
Barry Cleavin’s etching/aquatints always showed a finely honed sense of humour and the bizarre, and a love of wordplay, laid over more serious perspectives on human frailties, absurdities and our place in the world. Double meanings, sometimes triple, abound. “How many shags can you have on the head of a pin?” he asked, in one series. Another more serious, The Kiwi with a Shadow of Doubt, 2009, was inspired by the Global Financial Crisis and concern about the potential impact on New Zealand of the international issues playing out at the time – the possibility of capitalism or countries like the USA taking over our vulnerable economy… a theme which echoes today. The Kiwi (taken from an earlier museum drawing) stands on the precipice alongside a shadow of itself.
Barry Cleavin participated by invitation in numerous biennales and exhibitions of printmaking around the world, as well as solo exhibitions nationally and internationally. Although he was one of NZ’s most collectible printmakers, his work remained very affordable – in the true spirit of printmaking.
Given a computer for his 60th birthday, Cleavin (after a few years’ hesitation) discovered a whole new world of possibility in disseminating ideas through digitised art and social media – he used digital imagery to transform his own earlier etchings and drawings and merge them with images from photographs, drawings, and internet material, even superimposing images from advertising catalogues to emphasise the absurdities of a materialistic world driven to war and violence by commercial and corporate imperatives.
Barry Cleavin’s influence undoubtedly continues, but he will be greatly missed.
Image: The Kiwi with a Shadow of Doubt IV, etching/aquatint T/P, 2009, c Barry Cleavin
