Mrkusich: The Art of Transformation Alan Wright and Edward Hanfling Auckland University Press, $99.99, ISBN 9781869404376 I had a sort of epiphany the first time I saw a painting by Piet Mondrian. Prior to this my Mondrian experience had been…
Sit There and Draw That! Helen Crabb (“Barc”): Artist and Teacher Patricia Fry Steele Roberts, $29.99, ISBN 9781877448546 Bill’s Story: A Portrait of W A Sutton Pat Unger Canterbury University Press, $39.99, ISBN 9781877257704 Painting Out the Past: The…
New Zealand Portraits Richard Wolfe Penguin Books, $80.00, ISBN 9780670071777 The Power of Portraiture: Representing Leadership in New Zealand from 1840 to the Present Erin Griffey (with contributions from Brad Jackson and Paul Tapsell) Gus Fisher Gallery and David Ling,…
Art Icons of New Zealand: Lines in the Sand Oliver Stead David Bateman, $49.99, ISBN 9781869536374 Whenever a new book offering another survey of local art appears a number of logical questions present themselves. Will any previously overlooked artists be…
The Printing of a Masterpiece Alan Loney Black Pepper, $AUD25.95, ISBN 9781876044589 With so much reading now done on the computer screen, Alan Loney’s new publication arrives to remind us of some of the other qualities we encounter when we…
Back and Beyond: New Zealand Painting for the Young and Curious Gregory O’Brien Auckland University Press, $34.99, ISBN 9781869404048 This is a delicious book. As a child, I would have loved it. It reminds me of children’s books that were…
Look This Way: New Zealand Writers on New Zealand Artists Sally Blundell (ed) Auckland University Press, $44.99, ISBN 9781869403713 Art and letters have always had a close working relationship in New Zealand. Our cultural landscape is pock-marked with painter-poets, jacks-of-all-trades…
Colin McCahon: The Titirangi Years, 1953-1959 Peter Simpson Auckland University Press, $49.95, ISBN 9781869403898 A half-century ago, the literature of New Zealand art fitted on a single shelf, or – with a full collection of the periodical Art in New…
Crown Lynn: A New Zealand Icon Valerie Ringer Monk Penguin, $45.00, ISBN 0143020633 Crown Lynn, Valerie Ringer Monk’s articulate account of New Zealand’s favourite pottery, serves many functions, from appealing coffee-table book to collectors’ guide to a 50-year local history…