Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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self-determining original, moreover, has remained a cherished ideal of the avant-
garde”. 94
These are sweeping generalisations and it is important to remember the great variety of
styles and interests within such a broad movement. Nevertheless, the set of concepts
and terms associated with Romanticism provides a critical vocabulary that is still useful
today. It offers a starting-point for our attempt to explain what distinguishes Ward’s
aesthetic interests from those of other New Zealand filmmakers. While Romanticism
emerged in a particular historical period, it had lasting effects and it still provides the
model (or set of models) for a particular kind of world-view and approach to art in
broad terms. Peckham sees Romanticism both as “a general and permanent
characteristic of mind, art and personality, found in all periods and in all cultures” and
as “a specific historical movement in art and ideas which occurred in Europe and
America in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries”. 95 He cautions us,
however, that:
Although in the past, various theorists such as Jacques Barzun have attempted to
define Romanticism in terms of characteristics such as a return to the Middle
Ages, a love of the exotic, the revolt from reason, a vindication of the individual,
a liberation of the unconscious, a reaction against scientific method, a revival of
pantheism, a revival of idealism, a revival of Catholicism, a rejection of artistic
conventions, a return to emotionalism, a return to nature, there is no generally
accepted theory of Romanticism at the present time. 96
Romanticism provides an explanatory framework and terminology that continues to be
useful but one that must be used with an awareness of complexity and as a starting point
rather than a way of simply pigeonholing art.
Ward’s aesthetic relates primarily to Romanticism in Peckham’s “general and
permanent” sense, but his work also displays a specific connection with German
Expressionism, an artistic movement that grew out of some aspects of “historical”
Romanticism. (This aspect will be discussed later in the chapter.) While resistant to
any attempt to label his work, Ward has described himself as liking or being interested
94 The Encyclopedia of Visual Art 768.
95 Peckham, The Triumph of Romanticism 3-4.
96 Peckham, The Triumph of Romanticism 4-5.