Archive for the 'Art' Category

New Zealand: Auckland – Graphic Art by Colin McCahon, New Zealand

Monday, January 20th, 2020

Born in 1919, Colin McCahon was a driving force for art in NZ. The Auckland Art Gallery set up an full exhibit of the breadth of his work, McCahon said of his work, “My painting is almost autobiographical. It tells you where I am at any given time” He lived in 3 different geographic areas of New Zealand and you can see his art shift when his eye meets a new location.

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New Zealand: Auckland – Guerrilla Girls Collection at Auckland Art Gallery Toi oTamaki

Monday, January 20th, 2020

In 1984 an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC was an International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture. Of the 165 important paintings and sculptures mentioned, only 15 were created by women. The furor of this inequity started the Guerilla Girls movement to end gender and racial discrimination in museums everywhere . They created defiant and humorous pamphlets, videos, books and posters shown around the world. This call to action was to erase the double standard.

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New Zealand: Auckland – Guerrilla Girls Exhibit at Auckland Art Gallery Toi oTamaki

Wednesday, January 15th, 2020

Founded in New York City in 1985, the Guerilla Girls movement has been challenging feminine bias in art, politics, film, and pop culture since then. The catalyst was a 1984 exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC which was an International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture. Of the 165 important paintings and sculptures mentioned, only 15 were created by women. The furor of this inequity started the Guerilla Girls movement of defiant and humorous pamphlets, videos, books posters, posted around the world. They had had enough of gender and racial discrimination in museums everywhere. This call to action was to erase the double standard. It took the US film industry’s  Academy Awards community until 2018 to get to the same place.

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New Zealand: Auckland – Photo of Tattoo Artist (Tohunga) at work

Wednesday, January 15th, 2020

Tohunga or tattoo artists are still at work in New Zealand creating the symbolic intricate body tattoos for the Maori people. You can see these photos in the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki’s Living Portrait gallery.

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New Zealand: Auckland – To-hunga-ta-moto: Tattoo Artists at Work

Wednesday, January 15th, 2020

Found this painting of tattooing, the most interesting of Gottfried Lindauer’s paintings in the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki’s Living Portrait gallery. Only the most important tattoo artists (Tohunga) are allowed to create and maintain the integrity of the facial tattoo art form. This work is being done on a porch while a young tribal leader lies on a whariki, a special mat allowed for those high rank. His head rests on lap of the Tohunga while his hands are clenched in obvious discomfort. The other gentleman is also a Tohunga and he is chanting rituals for a safe and successful completion of  the pawaha, the creation of the important tatooed facial lines.

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New Zealand: Auckland – Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki Living Portrait

Wednesday, January 15th, 2020

One of the most visited part of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki is the area showing the living portraits or Mata Raurangi of Maori tribal leaders by Gottfried Lindauer. This one of Wi Te Manewha sports an authentic bird feathered shirt. Lindauer, a late 19th early 20th century portrait painter did many portraits of the tribal leaders found in this gallery.

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New Zealand: Auckland – Two Faces of a Maori Tribal Leader

Wednesday, January 15th, 2020

Here are two painted versions of Renata Kawepo, Tama ki Hikurangi found in the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. The first painting is by Gottfried Lindauer, the portrait artist, who painted most of the famous leaders. The second one, in a more modernistic style, is by Ayesha Green who shares a tribal connection to Kawepo being of Ngati Kahungunu, from the Hawke’s Bay region of New Zealand. Renata Kawepo is buried there.

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New Zealand: Auckland – Maori Tribal Leaders at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

Wednesday, January 15th, 2020

One of the most visited parts of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki are the living portraits or Mata Raurangi of Maori tribal leaders. This one of Eru Tamaikoha Te Ariari, a Maori tribal leader was painted in 1885 is by Gottfried Lindauer, a late 19th early 20th century portrait painter. Lindauer did many portraits of the tribal leaders.

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New Zealand: Auckland – Hanging City in Auckland NZ Art Gallery

Tuesday, January 14th, 2020

Thirty-nine per cent of people living in the NZ area were born somewhere else. In 2018, artists Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan created Pillars: Project Another Country to expound on human migration across oceans, displacement, relocation and settlement. When you move from one place to another, how do you become part of a community, what constitutes your family, and how are houses/homes built around these needs and relationships? The Aquilizans were born in the Philippines, work between Manila and Brisbane, so they very well understand the conversation about ‘belonging’ and what people call ‘home’. This huge hanging upside-down sculpture shows people falling out of a boat and creating homes.

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New Zealand: Auckland – Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

Tuesday, January 14th, 2020

So many of New Zealand’s famous names are unknown in North America. In 1919, the centennial year of artist Colin McCahon’s birth, a huge exhibit of many of his creations was set up in the Auckland Art Gallery. This is one of McCahon’s earlier paintings titled “The first Waterfall” which was painted in 1964. McCahon was a driving force for art in NZ; He helped run the Auckland CityArt gallery, installed exhibitions, taught art classes and painted too. 

 

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