Born in Argentina in 1938, Tom Kreisler was sent to New Zealand in 1952 to live with his uncle and aunt. What was originally intended to be a brief remedial stint in this country ended up being a fifty-year relocation. In the mid 1960s Kreisler was attending Canterbury Art School (Ilam) excelling in the painting department under the guardianship of Rudi Gopas and Bill Sutton. By 1968 he was attracted to a teaching position at New Plymouth Boys High School, in part because of what he heard about the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery development. The hiring of John Maynard, a young, tough and intellectually uncompromising Australian, particularly impressed Kreisler. As he would later recall: 'I knew there was going to be a gallery here and I knew it was going to be special. And about the second day from arriving, this young clean-shaven executive with an Aussie accent arrived, and that was Maynard, and he was bloody good. His arrival represented the future - auguring good will and hope.' The Govett-Brewster also became an important teaching resource for Kreisler who would inspire a number of students to go on to become acclaimed academics, writers, arts advocates, artists and photographers. In the late 1970s Kreisler went to Mexico City to visit his ailing mother. What had initially been a mercy dash across the globe soon shifted to being a sustained visitation that would last a couple of years. On his return to New Zealand Kreisler would produce a body of painting that merged this cultural encounter with a whole grab bag of political and social issues that he found materialising back in this new context. This work formed the backbone of Kreisler's first major survey exhibition Not a Dog Show which appeared at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Wellington City Gallery in the mid to late 1980s. Over the course of the 1980s and 1990s Kreisler would take an increasingly significant role at the Taranaki Polytechic. During this period he helped orchestrate, in association with Priscilla Pitts, the establishment of the Govett-Brewster - Taranaki Polytechnic Artist in Residence Programme. It was not until the late 1990s that Kreisler's work would again receive significant attention, as part of an artist in residency project in Hamilton, with the exhibition Tom Kreisler: Private and Confidential which toured between Hamilton, New Plymouth and Auckland. This experience provided the necessary catalyst for the production of a series of richly layered text works that are only now coming to light after Kreisler's death in 2002. Read more about the artist in comma dot dogma: A 196p monograph that includes new texts by Deborah Cain, Wystan Curnow, John Hurrell and Aaron Kreisler. Featuring over 128 colour plates and a number of Kreisler's works which are available in print for the first time. comma dot dogma brings together a series of critical insights into this artists legacy and offers a great opportunity to gain an understanding of the scope and depth of this artists vision. comma dot dogma published & distribued by umbrella 196p with 128 colour plates limited edition of 950 copies, each numbered by hand Place your order online.      Images: comma dot dogma book cover & page spread