Peter Nicholls, born in Whanganui in 1936, is considered one of New Zealand’s leading sculptors of public art. His sculptures, often combining steel and native timbers, comment on the New Zealand landscape and its colonial history.
Nicholls was educated at the Canterbury University School of Fine Arts, the Auckland Teachers College, and the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland where he graduated in 1963. In 1978–79 he completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. Nicholls distinguished career spans six decades, three of which were spent teaching at Dunedin’s School of Art.
Nicholls represented New Zealand at a sculpture symposium held in tandem with the Edmonton 1978 Commonwealth Games. His 13th work in the New Land series served as the maquette for a major kinetic sculpture, Counterpoise (1978), commissioned for the Muttart Conservatory, Edmonton.
In the 1980s, Nicholls produced a number of large-scale sculptures that “explored and related the sociospatial effects of art and architecture”. Several of these works, including Spine (1986, Auckland Domain) and Toroa (1989, Dunedin Harbour Basin), position large cuts of wood in ways that overtly reference skeletal movement. Bridge (1985–86) commissioned by the University of Otago, stands near the centre of the university campus. A seminal work, Whanganui (1990), pays homage to his place of birth and is today in the collection of the Sarjeant Gallery.
In the late 1990s/early 2000s, Nicholls created some of his largest and most recognised sculptures. Rakaia (1996–97) 66m long, is Nicholls’ contribution to the international sculpture collection at Gibbs Farm, Kaipara Harbour; Tomo (2005) 90m long, is at the Connells Bay Sculpture Park, Waiheke Island; Junction (2009) stands near the railway line at New Lynn, Auckland, while Moorings, referencing the Whanganui River’s nine tributaries, is sited beside the river at Moutua Quay.
“My work has always concerned the land. Travel and teaching have been an important part of this. The time and materials, and our use of all such resources, are a constant in my work. I never cut living trees on principle, being committed to creating ‘new life’ from discards. Thus, in the materials and the forms, there is the dialectic of the ephemeral and the permanent, life and its short space within time.”
Nicholls is now in his 84th year and Green Green provides a unique opportunity to purchase some of the few unplaced larger sculptures and smaller works from his remarkable career.