Over the Christmas holidays, Australian researcher Stephen Marshall visited Te Papa to view a little-known watercolour in our collection: John William Tristram’s ‘A Tremulous Dusk‘, painted in 1904. Stephen is currently writing a book on the artist, and wrote this blog to tell us more about the beautiful painting heRead more

Surrealist painting by Rita Angus

Around 1945, Rita Angus painted a man sitting in an armchair, next to a table of books and a bunch of flowers. Nothing too strange so far, right? Except that there is a devil in a long purple robe creeping up behind him. Not to mention the huge spider crawlingRead more

One of the sections in the current incarnation of the Ngā Toi, Arts Te Papa exhibition showcases a selection from Te Papa’s collection of Australian Aboriginal art. The show Gifted: Aboriginal Art 1971 – 2011 includes Papunya Tula paintings created in the 1970’s in a community near Alice Springs withRead more

F.007215/04; Te Kawau-a-toru (The pet shag of Kupe) French Pass, Marlborough; 2002

‘It was twenty years ago today, that Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play’……. Time has a funny way of sneaking up on us, and I felt this recently when I was invited by The Auckland Maritime Museum to talk about the series of photos I took 10 years ago,Read more