New Zealand artist, teacher, and critic Jim Allen passed away on the 9th of June, at the age of 100. Allen was one of the most influential, visionary figures of his generation. Here Curator Modern Art Lizzie Bisley and Curator Contemporary Art Nina Tonga reflect on his work and remarkable legacy.Read more
Rona Chapman, Art History and Public Policy student at Victoria University, recently spent time as an intern with our Knowledge and Information and Art teams. While here, she registered over 300 of our important artwork files, and wrote about several paintings and prints that are now on show in the exhibition Hiahia Whenua | Landscape and Desire. Along the way, she found a personal connection to some of the artworks, a series of lithographs by Edith Halcombe made nearly 150 years ago.Read more
Rita Angus’s painting, Rutu, is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most iconic portraits. Here, Conservator Paintings Linda Waters reveals some of the hidden histories she learned while preparing Rutu for exhibition.Read more
Curator Modern Art Lizzie Bisley pays tribute to Christchurch artist Bill Hammond.Read more
‘This is the best picture yet painted in this country’ is how Colin McCahon described his Ruby Bay, 1945. Here, author and curator Peter Simpson talks about the growing confidence that McCahon was showing through his correspondence around the time of working on this painting.Read more
University of Auckland student Susannah Whaley has spent her MA year intrigued by Rita Angus’s goddess portraits. As our guest blogger, she focusses on three fascinating, but little-known works, and asks whether they are self-portraits, goddesses, or both.Read more
Kia ora – I’m Louisa Hormann and I am a History Honours graduate of Victoria University. With the 100 year anniversary of the First World War upon us, it has been my job this summer to research and update Te Papa’s First World War Collections Online. I have discovered thatRead more
Kei te whakatuwhera tēnei kete kōrero mō Ngā Toi | Arts Te Papa, kia āhei ai koe kit e patopato i ōu ake whakaaro mō ngā toi – i te reo Pākehā me te reo Māori. Ākuni pea he kōrero āu mō tētahi peita, kāhore i a mātou. Tērā heRead more
Recently Te Papa’s art educator Helen Lloyd and I have been working together to compile a list of some of the best quotes by well-known New Zealand artists. Quotes about art and art making. We’re interested in quotes which really get to the heart of why artists make work. Helen,Read more
Senior artist Vivian Lynn has for over 60 years been making critical and enquiring work. The recent selective survey I, HERE, NOW Vivian Lynn at the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington (25 October 2008–15 March 2009) curated by Christina Barton, offered a rich selection ofRead more
My last post was about the installation of Judy Millar’s 2009 Venice Biennale project Giraffe-Bottle-Gun. This and Francis Upritchard’s Save Yourself are now open here at Te Papa, so as promised this post features images of the completed installations. Save Yourself A long view of the three works that makeRead more
This is my opening post in a series to discuss approaches to the framing of paintings. This first one is a response to William McAloon’s post: Freedom to act and takes his blog post as a point of departure. I look at some of the issues involving the sympathetic framingRead more
