About 50 members and guests were recently enthralled by two enlightening floor talks by Te Papa curators.
Rebecca Rice, Curator Historical New Zealand Art, introduced us to the exhibition Framing the View, featuring European photographers and artists who capitalised on the fashionable tourist trade to New Zealand in the 1880s. She compared the photographic works of the Burton Brothers with art works of the same scenes by Charles Blomfield and John B Hoyte, both of whom featured in their works the mystical Pink and White Terraces, promoted at the time as the eighth wonder of the world.
Chelsea Nichols, Curator Modern Art, was delighted to introduce us to the stunning but relatively unknown mural Palm Sunday (circa 1935) by A Lois White. This and other works featured in the exhibition New Visions, New Zealand, demonstrated how local artists, dismissed by critics as provincial and unimaginative, in the 1920s and 1930s were prepared to approach their work in new ways. Among the leaders of this movement were three women, Rita Angus, Francis Hodgkins and A Lois White. Works by each, depicting double figures, were displayed together, demonstrating their quite different styles.
These exhibitions on Level 5 close on 26 February 2017.
Feature image: Chelsea Nichols, Curator Modern Art discussing the works by Frances Hodgkins and A Lois White in New Visions, New Zealand.