Melvin Day’s suite of 8 Stabat Mater paintings – dramatic images that encapsulate Day’s visual response to each of the movements of Vivaldi’s baroque interpretation of the medieval hymn Stabat Mater Dolorosa – have been permanently installed in Wellington Cathedral of St Paul. The 13th century poem Stabat Mater Dolorosa has been an important source of inspiration for many artists and musicians for over 700 years. Art Curator Mark Hutchins will talk about the artist, the works, and the inspiration behind the series of paintings. Come and see the panels in their new home while listening to Vivaldi’s music that inspired them.
Melvin Day began his career as a protégé of highly influential Auckland based painter John Weeks. In the early 1960’s Day moved to Wellington where he continued to explore various forms of modernist abstraction before travelling to England to study at the Courtauld Institute, London. After nearly a decade of studying, painting and teaching in London, Day returned to New Zealand in 1969 to take up the directorship of the then National Gallery, a position he held for 10 years.
In 2003 he was awarded the CNZM and the achievements of a long career have been acknowledged in major survey exhibitions at The Dowse and the City Gallery.
Feature image: Detail from: Lacrimosa (Full of tears), Melvin Day. Image reproduced courtesy of the artist and Mark Hutchins Gallery