{{Short description|New Zealand artist, art critic, pacifist, drama tutor}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=December 2024}} {{Infobox artist | birth_date = 20 August 1909 | death_date = 14 October 1989 | birth_place = Dunedin | death_place = Dunedin | alma_mater = King Edward Technical College Art School | known_for = Art collecting, painting, theatre production and design }}

'''Rodney Eric Kennedy''' (20 August 1909 – 14 October 1989) was a New Zealand artist, art critic, pacifist and drama tutor. He was born in Dunedin.<ref name="DNZB Kennedy">{{DNZB|title=Rodney Eric Kennedy|first= Peter|last= Entwisle|author-link=Peter Entwisle |id=5k7}}</ref>

== Early life == Rodney Kennedy was the son of Alexander Kennedy and Lillian Ellice Brown. From the age of 6 to 8 Kennedy suffered from the muscle wasting disease poliomyelitis.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Entwistle |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Entwisle |date=2000 |title=Kennedy, Rodney Eric |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5k7/kennedy-rodney-eric |access-date=22 February 2024 |website=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand }}</ref> He attended the George Street and Anderson Bay Schools in Dunedin<ref>{{Cite news |date=22 December 1921 |title=School Vacations |access-date= |work=Evening Star |pages=10}}</ref> and in 1928 he became a full-time student at the art school attached to the King Edward Technical College in Dunedin to study under R N Field.<ref>{{Cite news |date=13 December 1928 |title=Technical College |work=Otago Daily Times |pages=6}}</ref> The same year Kennedy was a founding member of W.H.Allen and Field's art group, the Six and Four Club (six women, four men) a mix of teachers and students. The meetings required students to produce a work at the meeting followed by discussion. (A.K.C.Petersen ''R.N.Field: the Dunedin Years 1925–1945'' Manawatu Art Gallery 1989, pg 26 ) While he was a student at the art school Kennedy met MT (Toss) Woollaston in 1932 and the two form a romantic relationship that lasted until Woollaston moved to Māpua. Kennedy and Woollaston remained life-long friends and in 1938 joined the Society of Friends (Quakers) together.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brickell |first=Chris |title=Toss Woollaston's Love Triangle |url=https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/discover-collections/read-watch-play/lgbtqi-histories-aotearoa-new-zealand/toss-woollastons-love |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> In 1938 Kennedy and Colin McCahon biked from Dunedin to Nelson for the fruit picking season. They visited Woollaston who began his long friendship with McCahon.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Colin McCahon |url=https://collection.waikatomuseum.org.nz/persons/162/colin-john-mccahon |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> The poet Charles Brasch said of Kennedy, ‘He gave his friendship to other artists…having abandoned painting himself as if to serve his friends.’<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brasch |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Brasch |title=Indirections: a memoir 1909 – 1947 |date=1980 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-558050-1 |location=Wellington [N.Z.]; New York}}</ref> Thanks to his art training Kennedy worked as an artist (illustrator) in the Public Health Department of the Otago Medical School.<ref>{{Cite news |date=21 October 1936 |title=University Council |work=Otago Daily Times |pages=3}}</ref> During World War II Kennedy was interned at Whitanui Detention Camp near Shannon as a conscientious objector. Although a Quaker, he had refused to plead at his hearing.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brasch |first=Charles |title=Indirections: A Memoir 1909–1947 |publisher=Oxford University Press (NZ) |year=1980 |isbn=0195580508 |pages=420}}</ref> While at the camp he became involved with a theatre group and produced plays including ''The Whitanui Detention Camp: Presentation of 'The Beautiful People''', by William Saroyan.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Whitanui Detention Camp: Presentation of 'The Beautiful People', by William Saroyan. |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22376881?search%5Bi%5D%5Bname_authority_id%5D=-103413&search%5Bpath%5D=items |website=National Library, Wellington}}</ref> In 1948, Kennedy became the partner of Charles Brasch the poet and editor of the literary magazine ''Landfall''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Quigley |first=Sarah |date=2000 |title=Brasch, Charles Orwell |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5b40/brasch-charles-orwell |access-date=22 February 2024 |website=Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand}}</ref> Brasch also had a passionate interested in the arts and together they went on to create an important collection of contemporary New Zealand art.

== Art career == Kennedy first publicly exhibited his paintings in 1934 in the New Zealand Society of Artists exhibition, Pioneer Hall Dunedin.<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 September 1934 |title=A Praiseworthy Venture |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19340919.2.24?end_date=31-12-1989&items_per_page=10&page=2&query=%22rodney+kennedy%22&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1909&type=ARTICLE%2cILLUSTRATION |access-date=22 February 2024 |work=Otago Daily Times |pages=5}}</ref> In reviewing the work Eros commented, ‘in Kennedy's Landscape a more reserved and subtle use of colour is made. His interest is obviously centred in the study of rhythm and form.’<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 September 1934 |title=New Zealand Society of Artists |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19340919.2.20?end_date=31-12-1989&items_per_page=10&page=3&query=%22rodney+kennedy%22&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1909&type=ARTICLE%2cILLUSTRATION |access-date=22 February 2024 |work=Otago Daily Times |pages=4}}</ref> ''The Evening Star'' critic enthused, ‘An extremely sympathetic group of works by Rodney Kennedy. The two landscapes...show a rhythmical unity lacking in better painted pictures. The colour is sensitive and restrained. Such pictures repay more than a hurried glance and are keenly satisfying to one who looks for more than mere naturalism in a landscape.’<ref>{{Cite news |date=18 September 1934 |title=N.Z. Society of Artists |work=Evening Star |pages=5}}</ref>

In 1940 Kennedy joined other young artists, including Anne Hamblett, in removing their works at the opening of the Otago Art Society exhibition in protest at the Society refusing to hang a painting by Colin McCahon.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Gordon H |title=Colin McCahon: Artist |publisher=AH & AW Reed |isbn=0589014862 |location=Wellington |publication-date=1984 |pages=212}}</ref>

== Theatre career == By 1938 Kennedy's interests had moved toward theatre. Before World War II he and Colin McCahon with assistance from Doris Lusk had designed sets for the Left Book Club's production Karel Čapek's ''Insect Play.'' The production included Kennedy and McCahon's friend Ron O’Reilly in the cast as an ant''.''<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Insect Play |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19380831.2.30?end_date=31-12-1989&items_per_page=10&query=%22rodney+kennedy%22&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1909&type=ARTICLE%2cILLUSTRATION |access-date=22 February 2024 |work=Otago Daily Times |pages=5}}</ref> O’Reilly remembered being impressed by, ‘the directness and fresh unconventionality’ of Kennedy and McCahon's work on the set, ‘contriving powerful and beautiful effects from meagre materials.’<ref>{{Cite book |title=Colin McCahon: a Survey Exhibition |publisher=Auckland Art Gallery |year=1972 |pages=7}}</ref>

At the end of World War II Kennedy was released from the internment camp and returned to Dunedin where he was appointed Country Drama Tutor, Adult Education Department Otago University and became involved in a number of theatre productions.<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 March 949 |title=Return from Tour |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19490310.2.82?end_date=31-12-1989&items_per_page=10&page=2&query=%22rodney+kennedy%22&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1909&type=ARTICLE%2cILLUSTRATION |access-date=22 February 2024 |work=Otago Daily Times |pages=8}}</ref> In 1949 Kennedy played the Herald in Ngaio Marsh's production of William Shakespeare's ''Othello the Moor of Venice'' in the Canterbury University College Drama Society . The production went on to tour Australia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Canterbury University College Drama Society :Tour of Australia 1949. D D O'Connor presents the Canterbury Student Players of New Zealand in "Othello the moor of Venice", by William Shakespeare. Set design by Sam Marsh Williams; play produced by Ngaio Marsh. Printed by the Premier Printing Co. Pty Ltd., [1949] |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/36414183?search%5Bi%5D%5Bname_authority_id%5D=-103413&search%5Bpath%5D=items |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> The 1950s saw Kennedy and McCahon continue working together on the sets and costumes for a number of productions including: ''Peer Gynt,'' (1953),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stage designs for Peer Gynt. Series 3. h |url=https://hocken.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/56298?keywords=kennedy&type=all&highlights=WyJrZW5uZWR5Il0%3D&lsk=73d75f87c679a2775d66c5bc810f992d |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> ''Swan Lake'' (1954),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Swan Lake Stage Design 1 |url=https://hocken.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/56545?keywords=kennedy&type=all&highlights=WyJrZW5uZWR5Il0%3D&lsk=73d75f87c679a2775d66c5bc810f992d |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> and ''The Glass Menagerie in 1956.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stage Designs for the Glass Menagerie |url=https://hocken.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/56328?keywords=kennedy&type=all&highlights=WyJrZW5uZWR5Il0%3D&lsk=73d75f87c679a2775d66c5bc810f992d |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> By 1970 Kennedy was a lecturer in drama at the Department of University of Otago extensions in Dunedin.<ref>{{Cite news |date=17 April 1970 |title=Wymark Plays In Mini Festival |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19700417.2.119?end_date=31-12-1989&items_per_page=10&page=3&query=%22rodney+kennedy%22&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1909&type=ARTICLE%2cILLUSTRATION |access-date=22 February 2024 |work=The Press (Christchurch) |pages=14}}</ref> He continued with his theatre work including:

* Designer of the costumes for the Globe theatre's production of James K Baxter's play ''Temptation of Oedipus'' in 1970 with Ralph Hotere designing the sets.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Temptations of Oedipus |url=https://globetheatre.org.nz/?project=temptations-of-oedipus |access-date=22 February 2024 |website=The Globe Theatre}}</ref> * Director of ''Early morning'' by Edward Bond in 1970.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Groser |first=T.J. |date=1970 |title=Otago University Production of Edward Bond's 'Early Morning' |url=https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Salient33131970-t1-body-d8-d3.html |access-date=22 February 2024 |website=Salient}}</ref>

In 1971 Kennedy retired from Otago University and for three years was Honorary Director of the Globe Theatre.<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 March 1974 |title=Mini Bus Opera |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19740319.2.53?end_date=31-12-1989&items_per_page=10&page=2&query=%22rodney+kennedy%22&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1909&type=ARTICLE%2cILLUSTRATION |access-date=22 February 2024 |work=The Press (Christchurch) |pages=10}}</ref>

== Art collecting == Kennedy had already amassed an important collection of contemporary New Zealand paintings before his association with Brasch began. From their first meeting Brasch recalled him as someone, ‘‘who always had paintings and drawings by Toss (Woollaston) which he showed to everyone interested. He believed in Toss without reserve, generously, selflessly; his enthusiasm was catching.”<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brasch |first=Charles |title=Charles Brasch Indirections: A Memoir 1909–1947 |url=https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BraIndi-t1-body-d3-d3.html#name-208394-mention |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref>

Among key works owned by Kennedy were:

* Toss Woollaston ''Landscape Tahunanui 1934.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Landscape Tahunanui 1934 |url=https://hocken.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/56354?keywords=rodney+kennedy&type=all&highlights=WyJyb2RuZXkiLCJrZW5uZWR5Il0%3D&lsk=7d5ef0f127f6daf7578b915579159e2f |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> * Toss Woollaston ''Portrait of Rodney Kennedy 1936''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Portrait of Rodney Kennedy 1936 |url=https://hocken.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/55806?keywords=kennedy+woollaston&type=all&highlights=WyJ3b29sbGFzdG9uIiwia2VubmVkeSJd&lsk=18929d5a7a76c180556876ba592afdf9 |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> * Colin McCahon ''Otago Peninsula'' (1946–49).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Otago Peninsula (1946–49) |url= https://mccahon.co.nz/cm001650 |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> Painted for Kennedy this work had pride of place above the fireplace at his home in Royal Terrace.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hon Grant Robertson on Colin McCahon's Landscapes: 'They Blew my Mind' |date=31 October 2019 |url=https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2019/10/31/hon-grant-robertson-on-colin-mccahons-landscapes-they-blew-my-mind/ |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> McCahon expert Peter Simpson described the work as McCahon's ‘first fully successful painting’<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Simpson |first=Peter |date=1995 |title=Simpson Candles in a Dark Room: James K. Baxter and Colin McCahon |journal=Journal of New Zealand Literature |issue=13 |pages=170}}</ref> Kennedy donated ''Otago Peninsula'' to the Dunedin Public Library to mark its support of young artists during the 1930s and 1940s when it made exhibition space available in the foyer for them to show their work. The painting still hangs in the Library.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011 |title=Art Guide |url=https://www.dunedinlibraries.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/99668/Art-Guide-2011-Web.pdf1-Web.pdf |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> * Colin McCahon ''Crucifixion (for Rodney Kennedy'' ) 1947.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Crucifixion (for Rodney Kennedy ) 1947 |url=https://mccahon.co.nz/cm000253 |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> This prized work has had a very extensive public exhibition history. It is still in private hands. * Colin McCahon ''Kennedy Waterfall Series'' (c. 1960s).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kennedy Waterfall Series (c.1965) |url=https://hocken.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/55822?type=all&lsk=f8783f2dc2799cabed5c527273926df5 |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> * Colin McCahon ''Angels and Bed No 1'' 1976.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Angels in Bed No.1 (1976) |url=https://mccahon.co.nz/cm001534 |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> After he had had a bad fall from a ladder, McCahon gave this picture to Kennedy, a gesture he repeated with a number of close friends struck by health calamities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Gordon H |title=Colin McCahon: Artist Wellington |date=1984 |publisher=AH & AW Reed |isbn=0589014862 |location=Wellington |pages=182–183}}</ref>

In 1958 a selection of the works accumulated by Brasch and Kennedy was shown at the Auckland City Art Gallery as ''Thirty-seven New Zealand Paintings from the collection of Charles Brasch and Rodney Kennedy.'' The exhibition featured work by artists including Evelyn Page, John Weeks, Louise Henderson, M.T. Woollaston, Doris Lusk, John Drawbridge, and Frances Hodgkins. McCahon was represented by ''The Virgin Compared'' (1948).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Virgin Compared (1948) |url=https://www.mccahon.co.nz/cm000825 |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> The Director of the Gallery Peter Tomory described the collection as 'the most extensive and carefully chosen in the Dominion.'<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Private Collection of New Zealand Paitntings |url=https://cdn.aucklandunlimited.com/artgallery/assets/media/1958-a-private-collection-of-nz-painting.pdf |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> Kennedy began to make a number of gifts to the Hocken Collections at the University of Otago in 1956. These included the drawing by McCahon<ref>{{Cite web |title=Drawing for the 1945 painting 'Dear Wee June' |url=https://mccahon.co.nz/cm000720 |access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref> In 1968 Kennedy and Brasch both made major gifts to the Hocken Collections and Kennedy continued to do throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s. His last gift was made in 1988.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Garrity |first1=Tim |title=The Kennedy Gift |last2=Mackle |first2=Tony |last3=Blackman |first3=Gary |last4=Entwistle |first4=Rosemary |publisher=Hocken Library |year=1990 |isbn=}}</ref>

Rodney Kennedy died in Dunedin on 14 October 1989.

==References== {{Reflist}}

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{{The Group NZ}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Rodney Eric}} Category:1909 births Category:1989 deaths Category:Artists from Dunedin Category:New Zealand pacifists Category:New Zealand art critics Category:New Zealand theatre directors Category:New Zealand theatre designers