page_title: Mervyn Williams (artist)
section_title: Illusionary paintings
hierarchical_section_title: Mervyn Williams (artist) / Career / Illusionary paintings
caption_attribution_description: English: Mervyn Williams Pale Jade 2012 912 x 912mm Acrylic on Canvas
context_page_description: Mervyn Williams is a New Zealand artist. He was an early exponent of Op art in New Zealand in the 1960s–70s. In 1990 he originated a style of illusionary abstract painting based on chiaroscuro, creating the impression of three-dimensional forms and textures on a flat canvas. Since 2009 he has used digital techniques in returning to an Op art style. Williams is almost unique amongst his contemporaries in New Zealand art for having embraced abstraction at the start of his career and exclusively throughout. His work is held in all major New Zealand public collections. A monograph by Edward Hanfling was published by Ron Sang in 2014 coinciding with a survey exhibition.
context_section_description: During 1990–91, while living in Whanganui, Williams worked on techniques for creating the illusion of physical texture on a flat, painted surface. Eventually, using a thin film of paint and creating fine shifts in tone and colour, he achieved an almost photographic rendering of effects of light and shadow. The series evolved as a number of distinct formats or groups, each based on a simple, geometric structure. The paintings are primarily studies in perception and light. Williams has been likened to a “magician” because his paintings generate responses of surprise and wonder, and a degree of mystery surrounds his technique. The illusionary paintings are considered an original achievement, without obvious precedent in the history of art internationally. They were first exhibited at Gow Langsford Gallery in March 1992, following Williams’ return to Auckland the previous year.
  The illusionary paintings are representational in the manner of the Old Masters, and can thus be described accurately as trompe l'oeil works, but they represent abstract forms and ambiguous phenomena. Williams has described them as “at once both totally abstract and as representational as you can get.” According to curator Anna-Marie White, Williams is significant because “he created a new direction within abstract painting while simultaneously challenging the very nature of abstraction as a non-representational art form.” Important examples of the illusionary paintings are Where Corals Lie (1994, Rutherford Collection) and Precept (Gold) (2005, private collection).
  The illusionary paintings draw attention to perception itself, and encourage critical reflection on the relationship between what we see and what we believe we see.
caption: Mervyn Williams Pale Jade 2012 Acrylic on Canvas 912 x 912mm
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "598", "Image ImageLength": "600", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "450", "Image YResolution": "450", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2017:07:15 12:55:40", "Image ExifOffset": "232", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "382", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6892", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "300", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "301"}