Fallen Star
The story of a life is as secret as life itself. A life that can be explained is no life at all.
Elias Canetti (1905-1994)
‘Long time the girl wonder of Auckland art circles’ was reviewer Michael Brett’s characterisation.1 Yet now, except for friends and relatives, Suzanne Goldberg (1940-1999) is barely remembered in the local art ‘world’, such is the fickleness of taste and fortune. Eminent art historian Ernst Gombrich (1909-2001) observed, ‘Luck plays a tremendous part in cultural history. The historical significance of an artist’s work is not necessarily recognised at the time of its production.’ He reflected, ‘It may be that in fifty years’ time, when critics look back on our own age, these people who are not now in the Museum of Modern Art will be considered the pioneers of 1979.’2
Who was Suzanne Goldberg? Auckland-born, the daughter of Charles and Millicent Goldberg, she graduated with Honours from Elam School of Fine Arts in 1961, a recipient of the Joe Raynes Scholarship in her final year. Teachers’ Training College and short periods of secondary school teaching, notably at Auckland Girls’ Grammar, followed during 1963-64. Awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council travelling scholarship, she sailed to England in mid-1965. Attempts to enrol at the Royal College of Art misfired, so she enrolled at Hornsey College of Art. She was there briefly, September to November, before flying back, reportedly feeling lonely and isolated, to Auckland.3
These details tell little about her. Various acquaintances from the 1960s described Goldberg, a sports car driver when that was unusual for a student, as aloof, intense, prone to emotional difficulties. Along with Don Binney (1940-2012), she was once regarded as the most promising artist of her generation; yet from the mid-1980s she increasingly disappears from collective memory in contemporary art milieux. In contrast, Binney’s work continues to attract a lot of attention. Monographs are written. His paintings sell for six figures. You
