Bryan Dew. Photo / Andrew Labett
Years ago I had the good fortune of interviewing the now late artist, Bryan Dew.
Born in Hastings in 1940, he decamped as a young man to London before landing in New York sometime in the late 60s. In 2005 he returned from the Big Apple to visit the Fruit
Bowl for the first time in almost four decades. Given the length of his US sojourn, my immediate inference was he missed the Heretaunga Plains very little.
As it were, his uneasy view of "home" was evidenced in the satire he's best known for, including works he painted in the 60s of what to him were the awkward Kiwi conventions of marriage, beauty contests, 21sts and funerals.
He had this endearing habit of removing his glasses each time he spoke, only to put them back on when listening to my questions. It was as if his glasses enabled hearing, but impeded speech.
"So", I asked him, "after 40 years away, what's the most significant Kiwi culture shift you've noticed on return?"
