Jim Allen papers

Collection

Identifier: MSS-Archives-FA 2013/09

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection consists mainly of material relating to Jim Allen’s teaching at the Elam School of Fine Arts and his professional sculptural commissions produced during the 1960s and 1970s.

Documents produced as part of Allen’s tenure at Elam School of Fine Arts (1960-1977) include Faculty of Fine Arts meeting minutes, correspondence, time-tables and course material.

Material relating to Allen’s art practice includes contracts and documentation of commissioned works, with financial records, associated ephemera and press cuttings for projects undertaken between 1959 and 1971. Commissions include sculptural works produced for sites throughout New Zealand from both public and private organisations and range from sculptures, fountains, sculptural murals and stained glass windows.

Dates

1954 - 1976

Creator

Allen, Jim, 1922-2023 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Not restricted.

Biographical / Historical

Jim Allen MNZM has been acknowledged as a pioneer of Post-Object and Performance-based art in New Zealand with his contribution to arts education earning him high praise.

Born in Wellington in 1922, William Robert (Jim) Allen served in World War II from 1940 to 1945. During his service he travelled to Egypt and Italy and later studied sculpture at the Institute di Arte in Florence, Italy. On his return to New Zealand, Allen gained a Diploma in Fine Arts from Canterbury University in 1948, studying sculpture under Francis Shurrock. After graduating Allen was awarded a travelling scholarship which led to him attending the Royal College of Art, London (1948-1952). Following his studies in England, Allen returned to New Zealand and became involved in arts education through Gordon Tovey.

During the early stages of his career Allen produced many notable public and private commissions including windows and sculpture for the Futuna Chapel, Auckland (1960), and the 1964 sculpture Conversation Piece, for the newly built Pakuranga Town Centre.

In 1960, Allen joined Elam School of Fine Arts as Lecturer in Sculpture, then from 1964 to 1970 held the position of Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor (1971-1977). During his tenure at Elam, Allen has been credited with transforming the sculpture department, revamping the curriculum and encouraging ambitious and experimental art from students through utilising unconventional materials, processes and techniques. In 1977, Allen became Founding Head at the School of Art, Sydney College of the Arts, now the University of Sydney.

Since 2000, Allen’s career has undergone re-examination by New Zealand art historians and curators. A number of key performance works from the 1970s have been restaged including Poetry for Chainsaws (1976) at Michael Lett Gallery and the major three-part work Contact (1974) was re-performed at Artspace. In 2011, Allen was included in a significant touring exhibition, Points of Contact: Jim Allen, Len Lye, Helio Oiticica at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth.

Jim Allen is a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit and in 2015 received an Art Foundation Icon award, having also received Honorary Doctorates from the University of Sydney and Auckland University of Technology in 2007.

Jim Allen died in Auckland on 9 June 2023 aged 100.

Extent

0.6 metres (3 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The collection has been arranged into three series: 'Personal correspondence', 'Professional papers' and 'Teaching material and Elam faculty files'.

Series 1: 'Personal correspondence' includes letters between the artist and his family and friends, relating to Allen’s early involvement in arts education and the artist’s private residence.

Series 2: 'Professional papers' has been arranged into four sub-series: 'Job applications' includes the artist’s curriculum vitae, character references and photographs of sculptural work; 'Commissions and proposals' relates to commissioned sculptural works, murals and fountains; 'Finance' comprises of assorted receipts and invoices including material related to commissions. 'Press cuttings and ephemera' includes correspondence and press statements from Allen as Secretary of the New Zealand Society of Sculptors and Associates. Some outsized materials in this series have been seperated for storage considerations.

Series 3: 'Teaching material and Elam faculty files' includes two sub-series, 'Meeting minutes' and 'Administration and research notes'.