
Installation view of ‘Looking for a new country’ – Christopher Perkins in New Zealand, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 6 November 2019 – 22 March 2020. Photo: Shaun Matthews.
Photo Credit
Installation view of ‘Looking for a new country’ – Christopher Perkins in New Zealand, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 6 November 2019 – 22 March 2020. Photo: Shaun Matthews.
Photo Credit
Drawing on public and private collections from throughout New Zealand, this is the first exhibition to survey the work of Christopher Perkins (1891–1968), the British artist who spent five years in New Zealand (1929–1933) where he produced such iconic images as Taranaki, 1931 and Frozen Flames, 1931 (both in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki).
Though these works have acquired a legendary status in New Zealand’s nationalist art history, the full extent of his production in New Zealand is not well known and no exhibition has previously been undertaken to review his achievements. This show seeks to remedy this oversight, extending attention to Perkins’ portraiture and his studies of Māori subjects undertaken in his final year when he and his family moved from Wellington to Rotorua, before returning to the United Kingdom.
This exhibition is supported by Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa.
Drawing on public and private collections from throughout New Zealand, this is the first exhibition to survey the work of Christopher Perkins (1891–1968), the British artist who spent five years in New Zealand (1929–1933) where he produced such iconic images as Taranaki, 1931 and Frozen Flames, 1931 (both in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki).
Though these works have acquired a legendary status in New Zealand’s nationalist art history, the full extent of his production in New Zealand is not well known and no exhibition has previously been undertaken to review his achievements. This show seeks to remedy this oversight, extending attention to Perkins’ portraiture and his studies of Māori subjects undertaken in his final year when he and his family moved from Wellington to Rotorua, before returning to the United Kingdom.
This exhibition is supported by Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa.