Dick Frizzell talks about art, culture, consumerism, and the rock 'n roll music that's provided the sound track for his life.
Photo: Dick Frizzell
Over the years Dick Frizzell has been instrumental in broadening the Kiwi appreciation of art, with his unique take on realism, cubism and commercialism, challenging our perception of everyday things and what constitutes culture.
From the mid-60s, fresh out of art school Frizzell was involved in the design and creation of dozens concert posters and album covers while he explored ways to define his role in the art world.
Back in the day Frizzell shunned art for arts sake and was swept up in a heady mix of animation, advertising and pop art design. He designed posters for Radio Hauraki concerts and the Great Ngaruawahia Music Festival, created covers for local bands Human Instinct Ticket and Dragon and was called in to tone down David Bowie's Hunky Dory cover for record executives who thought he was too outrageous and the singer a one hit wonder.
Frizzell messed with the hei tiki, delivering cubist and art deco versions and gave Charlie the Four Square man several decades of makeovers, most recently on the cover of the Great New Zealand Songbook, with a guitar slung over his shoulder.
Reporter Keith Newman spoke to the artist, now living in Haumoana, Hawke's Bay, ranging across topics including art, culture, consumerism, and the rock 'n roll music that's provided the sound track for his life.
Corben Simpson album cover art by Dick Frizzell, courtesy of Eddie O'Strange and Strange Records.
