Like the British Pop artist David Hockney, Ian Scott was born in Bradford in Yorkshire. Emigrating to New Zealand in 1952 at the age of 8, he excelled at art as a youngster, becoming the youngest ever winner of the Kelliher Prize for landscape painting while still a teenager. He attended McCahon’s art classes at Auckland Art Gallery before enrolling at Elam where he and Richard Killeen perfected their contemporary Realist style. While Killeen located his images in suburbia, Scott opted for stylised West Coast landscape backgrounds. Two Worlds is a slightly earlier work than Five Miniskirts, showing a windswept modern nude as a half torso, situated in front of rolling green hills and kauri trees which appear like a stage set. This is the classic juxtaposition of nature and culture, showing the painter’s skillful conceptual development alongside his technical accomplishment.

Private Collection, Auckland Important Paintings & Contemporary Art, Art+Object, 06/08/2015