Pages tagged with: art

By 1980 Mountford Tosswill (Toss) Woollaston was one of New Zealand’s most widely known contemporary painters; a far cry from his childhood on a dairy farm in the Taranaki backblocks.

Colin McCahon’s works became some of the most recognisable and celebrated paintings ever to be produced in New Zealand.

Born in Dunedin in 1919, McCahon regularly visited the Dunedin Public Art Gallery with his family during his childhood. In July and August 1936 he made several visits to an exhibition by Toss Woollaston, whose landscapes gave direction to his desire to become a painter.

Len Lye is a controversial figure in New Zealand art, an internationally renowned and influential artist who is seen by some as an outsider whose art has little relevance to the local tradition.

Lye was born in Christchurch in 1901. His father died three years later and Len was raised by his mother and various relatives. In 1908 the family moved to the Cape Campbell lighthouse, after his mother remarried. Although only there for a year, the experience was formative, with references often reappearing in his later art.

Draughtsman, artist, surveyor, explorer, soldier, public servant

The multi-faceted Charles Heaphy made quite an impact on colonial New Zealand as an artist, explorer, soldier and colonial administrator. He was the first colonial soldier to win the Victoria Cross.