Maverick with a passion for art

John Perry with The Museum Storeroom by Russell Clark. PHOTO/BEN FRASER

Perry has an eye for great works and a love for Rotorua-just keep 'grey suits' away

IF THERE IS one thing John Perry hates it's 'the grey suit brigade'-the last thing he can be accused of is being one of them.

Before our pen is primed he demands we record he's always been a 'square peg in a round hole type', few who know him would have him any other way.

There's something delightfully eccentric about this elf ofaman with his passion for art and ephemera embedded in the marrow of his soul. Small of stature he's a giant powerhouse of art world knowledge,

Rotorua's the beneficiary.

For 10 years he curated the city's art gallery, during the next 10 he oversaw its amalgamation with the museum, the first to run the two as a single entity. Although his tenure came to a close in 1997 "or was it 1998?" he remains the paramount collector of the district's major artworks.

Since 2001 he's been retained by the Rotorua Trust specifically to purchase major Rotorua-related works that come on the market. He's blessed with the unique ability to often sniff them out before they do. A good-sized slice of what's now the Trust's Heritage Collection is presently hanging at the museum-gallery whose gestation he nurtured.

Our People corners him when he's in town to 'demystify' the works he's acquired for public benefit; the night's foul, attendance is sizeable, 'JP' has pulling power.

It's our mission to turn the tables and attempt to demystify John Perry, the emphasis is on 'attempt', his conversations repeatedly meander off down compounding tangents. An only child, he was brought up by two mothers-his birth mum and her twin sister in Whakatane.

An unashamed non-conformist, collecting's what he exists for. "I was blessed, or was it cursed? with this obscure collector's gene."

Bureaucracy drives him to distraction.

Answering to the 'grey suit brigade' in his museum-gallery days led to copious tetchy clashes. A standout was the time he convinced councillors to outlay $400 towards a Ralph Hotere work (the Arts Council paid the other half).

"What I omitted to say was it was on corrugated iron, there were a lot of recriminations over that, I was accused of buying 24-carat rust, today it's worth $250,000."

The grin accompanying this little gem would crucify the Cheshire cat's.

Perry's passion for the creative was fostered in Auckland Grammar's art room.

"I took refuge there from the grey suits who were stifling me-the teacher, Jack Crippen yes, it really was Crippen -had sideboards, suede shoes and a green tweed jacket."

He and four schoolmates formed a skiffle band, The Meteors. "I played the washboard, now I look back and think 'hells bells, I was there for the emergence of New Zealand's teenage culture'."

Perry's chuffed that during a recent forage (junk shop foraging is second nature to him) he unearthed a copy of Hostage to The Beat, a tribute to 50s music. "There's this picture of our band, we won three talent quests."

At Elam School of Fine Art he was elated to find he wasn't the only 'lone wolf living beyond the fringe'.

"Elam was a very rounded experience, as a result I'm not shackled by gilt frames and marble pedestal syndrome."

Surprisingly for a natural-born rebel, art school took him into mainstream teaching; his explanation's perfectly plausible. "My objective was to spread the pop art revolution."

After a decade he'd had enough. "I went feral, built a house in Kaukapakapa out of an old church, it was riddled with borer." Artist and potter mates helped him craft Black Stump Cottage.

Three years on his dream job was advertised. "Rotorua wanted a gallery curator, I rode my Vespa into town in 1978, my predecessor only lasted three months." Perry took to the post "like a duck to water, in Rotorua there was plenty of hot water for me to get into".

In 1980 he self-funded his first overseas trip, specifically to look at the world's great galleries and museums. "What I saw reinforced my commitment to cement this place [Rotorua] in the big picture of New Zealand."

He considers Feathers and Fibres, a celebration of historical and contemporary Maori weaving, his prime Rotorua achievement."We did it two years before Te Maori [New Zealand's international exhibition].

One of the reasons I came here was my interest in Maori culture, I was this amateur social anthropologist so it was like coming to university with the late Emily Shuster and Guide Bubbles as my tutors."

It provided the council's Doubting Thomases with an unexpected windfall.

"We made a decision in-house to record it in a book, Penguin printed 8000 copies for $60, the council got $8000 in royalties."

Headline-grabbing exhibitions Elvis in Geyserland and Out of the Woodwork followed. "For that I collected flotsam and jetsam from the mouth of the Puarenga Stream, it was man and nature conflicting."

Live on-site entertainment was a Perry innovation.

"We became a bit of a cultural hub for people out of the mainstream, hosted some amazing performers, launched the perfume Fendi in the museum." Today Perry lives in the former Helensville cinema, working as an artist, consultant, valuer and antique dealer.

He's discovered becoming cyber savvy'samodern-day thrill. "I only acquired my first computer three years ago, it's changed my life, I can visit the world's wonderful galleries and museums without leaving my own art collection."

But it's the Trust collection that remains his passion.

"We've got Johnny Lepper [the late trust chairman] to thank. We had a lot in common, both celebrated the underdog, he was a hard-core socialist, a man of the people, when he found out Blomfield's Pink and White Terraces paintings were destined to go off-shore he said 'we've got to get John Perry to go and buy them'. "I brought them back in my mini, now we've got this hugely valuable collection, that's satisfying."

The Perry-curated Rotorua Trust's Heritage Collection Places and Faces is at the upstairs gallery until February 21.

John Perry
- Born: Otorohanga, 1943.
- Education: Cornwall Primary, Remuera Intermediate, Auckland Grammar, Elam School of Fine Art.
- Family: "I was married once, have three sons." Grandchildren? "Impossible, I'm still a teenager."
- Interests: Art, sculpture, reading "not fiction", travel "Barcelona's my top place, like Rotorua it celebrates its culture".
-Favourite artwork: "The one I bought last night."
- On Rotorua: "A unique tribal universe of Maori culture."
-Personal philosophy: "Leave only footprints and fond memories."