Thomas John Taylor (19251994) was a New Zealand sculptor and educator. He spent his life in Christchurch and became an influential lecturer at the University of Canterbury (UC; ).
Taylor studied architecture followed by sculpture at UC's predecessor. He joined the UC School of Fine Arts in Ilam as a lecturer specialising in sculpture and later led the sculpture department for over 20 years. Taylor taught modernism but encouraged his students to explore other movements. Some of his students went on to become notable artists.
As a sculptor, Taylor's productive early and sparse late periods were figurative and modernist. In between, he spent a decade producing abstract fusions of sculpture and architecture. Taylor also designed houses and theatre sets, and he organised in the Christchurch arts community.
Taylor's contribution to sculpture is generally regarded to be the artists he taught rather than the works he produced.
Taylor was born on 7 May 1925 in Christchurch. He completed his schooling at St Kevin's College, Oamaru and passed the examination to enter university (or matriculated) at years old. In 1939, Taylor studied architectural drawing then worked as a draughtsman in the early years of World War II. From 1943 to 1945, he served in the Royal New Zealand Navy as a surveyor in the East Indies. After the war, Taylor continued his studies at Canterbury University College. He completed a degree in architectural construction in 1947. Taylor went on to complete a diploma at the School of Fine Arts in 1952. He studied figurative sculpture under Henry Eric John Doudney.
Taylor spent his working life as an educator in Christchurch. He started as the art master of St Andrew's College,
while he was also a part-time lecturer in architectural history at the university. In 1957, Canterbury University College became the University of Canterbury and the School of Fine Arts moved from the city centre to the suburb of Ilam. Taylor joined the school in 1960 as a lecturer specialising in sculpture. He led the sculpture department from 1969 until his retirement in 1991.
As late as the mid-1980s, Taylor taught and largely practiced modernism. But he was interested in his students's exploration of other movements and unconventional media. A history of art in Canterbury gave a list of Taylor's students who became sculptors. They were Chris Booth, Neil Dawson, Rosemary Johnson, John Panting, Matt Pine, Phil Price, Pauline Rhodes, Carl Sydow, Bronwyn Taylor, Merylyn Tweedie and Boyd Webb. Interviewed in Christchurch newspaper The Press, Dawson remembered Taylor as a highly intelligent but tough sculpture and art history lecturer. He continued "[Taylor] set challenges which would last for the rest of your life, and you can't ask for more than that from your teacher."
Taylor is generally regarded as an influential educator.
Taylor's early work was figurative and largely in concrete (see Sculpture). By the mid-1960s, he had the idea of fusing sculpture with architecture. In 1965, Taylor received the first Canterbury Society of Arts Guthrey Travel Award to visit Australia. He was inspired by the massive steel work of Clement Meadmore. For the next decade, Taylor largely produced formal abstractions in steel.
In 1969, Taylor received a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council travel grant. He visited Europe to study sculpture in bronze with and steel with Rudolf Hoflehner. On his return and without the knowledge of the University of Canterbury or the local authority, Taylor set up a foundry at the School of Fine Arts for casting bronze. It was later described as "...highly illegal ...". From the 1980s, Taylor returned to figurative work producing the occasional bronze bust.
Between the mid-1960s and early 1970s, Taylor alternated between membership of the Canterbury Society of Arts (CSA) and The Group. He also helped to create two artists's groups: 20/20 Vision in the mid-1960s and The Sculptors' Group in the early 1970s (see Organiser). Taylor exhibited work with The Group, 20/20 Vision and the CSA (see Sculpture).
Few reviews of Taylor's sculptures have been found but those that have are positive.
Moraine (1967) was a freestanding sculpture and Taylor's first formal abstraction. It was composed of forms made from welded sheet steel. The work is in the collection of Christchurch Art Gallery (CAG; MÃÂori: Te Puna o Waiwhetà «). They noted how the smooth finish hid the technique used to make it. In 1990, Taylor said it was his favourite work.
An architectural sculpture for the IBM Centre, Wellington (1971) was also composed of steel forms. At over 4 metres high by 5 metres long, it was Taylor's largest known work. Mounted in the portico at the front of the office block, vertical forms on the floor and ceiling curved to horizontal, merged then went through a gap in the glass curtain wall to end in the lobby. Architect Martin Hill sketched and reviewed the work for his Wellington Townscape column in The Dominion newspaper. He wrote it was "...a sensitively shaped vigorous form." which rewarded repeat viewing.
Transit (1976) was another architectural sculpture and Taylor's last known formal abstraction. It was in the University of Auckland Medical School. Mounted in a stair landing with a window, it was made of steel sheets on beams running between the walls and ceiling. In his book New Zealand Sculpture: A History, art historian Michael Dunn wrote Transit was highly abstract and industrial looking. He noted how "...the beams appear to move in space, creating a contrast with the architecture and a frame for the view through the window ...".
W. A. Sutton C.B.E. (19911992) was a bronze bust of Taylor's School of Fine Arts colleague and close friend, the painter better known as Bill Sutton. It was Taylor's last known work. Also in the CAG collection, they described it as "...modelled in a loose, spontaneous style that gives the work a sense of liveliness and immediacy."
However, both Dunn and John Coley, who formed an artists's group with Taylor, wrote that Taylor's lasting contribution to sculpture was as an educator rather than a practitioner.
Although Taylor only had initial training in architecture, he is known to have designed four houses in and around Christchurch (see Houses). The most notable was a modernist house and studio for the painter Bill Sutton. Built in 1963, Sutton lived there until his death in 2000. It was one of the few houses in Richmond to survive the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Owned by Christchurch City Council since 2019, it is used as an artist's residence. In 2022, Heritage New Zealand (MÃÂori: Pouhere Taonga) listed Sutton House and Garden as a category one historic place of special or outstanding significance.
Between the early 1950s and early 1970s, Taylor is known to have designed sets for seven theatrical productions (see Theatre sets). Three were works of Shakespeare performed by the university drama society under the direction of Taylor's friend the author Ngaio Marsh.
Taylor helped to found a number of art ventures, all based in Christchurch.
In 1964, John Coley and Taylor inspired contemporary artists interested in experimentation to form 20/20 Vision. The group held annual exhibitions until 1968.
Taylor and Carl Sydow, a former student of his, founded The Sculptors' Group in 1970. The group organised lectures and held three exhibitions, but it disbanded in 1972 when members moved from South to North Island or overseas for study or work opportunities.
In the early 1970s, Taylor also served on the council of the Canterbury Society of Arts.
In 1980, printmaker Jule Einhorn set up the Gingko Print Workshop and Gallery for Works on Paper with the help of Taylor and his School of Fine Arts colleague the printmaker Barry Cleavin. Gingko was in the Christchurch Arts Centre where Taylor served as a member of the board. The workshop closed in 1992.
Taylor and his wife Patricia, known as Paddy, had three children. They divorced in 1973 after Tom and his next partner Joan Livingstone began their relationship. The following year, Livingstone opened Labyrinth Gallery, a commercial art gallery in Christchurch city centre, which closed in the late 1970s. In Taylor's final years his partner was Jule Einhorn. Taylor died in July 1994 (aged 69).
Sources appear to conflict on whether Taylor designed a house and studio on Gloucester Street, Christchurch for his School of Fine Arts colleague the potter and painter Doris Lusk. Architecture Now magazine said he did without saying when. But a regular visitor to Lusk's house on Gloucester Street in the 1980s recalled it was designed by architect John Trengrove in 1972 as an addition to her existing studio.