The Ponsonby Madonna
Tony Fomison1982 - 1983
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Auckland, New Zealand
The Ponsonby Madonna is the only mural-sized painting Tony Fomison completed. It was commissioned for St Paul’s College in Ponsonby, Auckland and remained in situ at the school chapel until 2006. The painting was much publicised during its production as was Fomison’s strongly held belief in a ‘multi-cultural New Zealand’. The Ponsonby Madonna depicts two generalised Polynesian faces, closely entwined as mother and son.
The double portrait format is repeated in several paintings Fomison did at this time on the subject of the transition of genealogical information, or ‘the handing down’ of knowledge and cultural history. As a translation of the biblical figure of Mary into a Pacific context, Fomison gives form to concepts of heritage both religious and cultural.
- Title: The Ponsonby Madonna
- Creator: Tony Fomison
- Creator Lifespan: 1939 - 1990
- Creator Nationality: New Zealand
- Creator Gender: Male
- Creator Death Place: Waitangi, New Zealand
- Creator Birth Place: Christchurch, New Zealand
- Date Created: 1982 - 1983
- Physical Dimensions: w3615 x h2375 mm (Without frame)
- Artist biography: Tony Fomison was born in Christchurch in 1939 and became an important post-war artist. He studied sculpture at Canterbury Art School, and began painting in 1960–1. At the beginning of the 1970s Fomison moved to Auckland, where his work was influenced by Polynesian culture. He became increasingly involved in supporting Pacific artists and community, travelling to Samoa in 1983, and undergoing a full-body Samoan traditional tatau or tattoo, the pe’a.
- Type: Painting
- Rights: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased with funds from the Lyndsay Garland Trust, 2006
- External Link: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
- Medium: oil and alkyd on hessian
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