Art, Style, Living > NZ Art & Design

It is entirely possible to immerse oneself in the glories of European art without having to travel to the Louvre, the Uffizzi, the Tate or the Frick. That's because New Zealand's public art galleries are richly studded with works collected by benefactors over the last 150 years and generously gifted to the nation. Many are infrequently seen and the richness of the collections often goes unacknowledged. In this outstanding book, respected curator Mary Kisler delves into the storerooms and reintroduces our historic art treasures (and... read more

Winner of the Illustrative Arts Award, 1998 Montana New Zealand Books Awards. Charles F. Goldie (1870-1947) is probably New Zealand's best-known artist. His popular fame has been fed by a stream of newspaper reports documenting record-shattering prices, thefts, vandalisms and forgeries. Descendants of Goldie's models revere the depictions of their ancestors, while others denounce his paintings as documents of colonial racism. The mystique surrounding Goldie and his works is unparalleled in New Zealand art.

Denis Robinson's latest offering is something of an artist's road trip - a journey from the top to the bottom of New Zealand through the paintings of nearly 60 artists. The tour begins with Northland and runs cross-country to the south of the South Island. Work from more than one artist highlights the nuances of each particular region or city. There are 20 regions covered in the book, with an additional focus on the four main cities, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch - including a commemorative selection of paintings - and Dunedi... read more

'Characters of the graffiti world' is over 120 pages, of full-colour photos (and 4 interviews with prominent genre'ed artists) based on the charicatures and themework of the graffiti/aerosol art culture. Where-as graffiti usually draws one's mind to words and letters, tags and scrawls, this book is focussed more on the artistic side of the graffiti culture and not focussed on the words or tags at all-it's about the themework and charicatures/characters of the culture. The photography within the book is 40% NZ based and 60% internat... read more

European explorers of the Pacific in the 18th and early 19th centuries faced a problem - how to describe the people they met and report what they had seen and found. From Cook onwards, a serious expedition included artists and scientists in its ship's company. An ambitious journey of the 19th century was the third voyage of the French explorer Dumont d'Urville, from 1837 to 1840. It was just before the invention of photography, when phrenology, the study of people's skulls, was the latest thing. D'Urville chose to take on th... read more

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Uncovering images of New Zealand through the 'new eyes' of early European explorers and settlers. We are familiar with the commissioned works of official artists documenting their first impressions of their new land, and new co-inhabitants. But less well-known are the personal sketches and paintings created by amateur artists. Much of their work was collected by Alexander Turnbull and this book presents fascinating images of New Zealand art from the time of Cook to the beginning of the twentieth century. Includes over 100 painting... read more

Quilts evoke the past - they stimulate our earliest memories of security and comfort and resonate with historical and cultural references challenging the assumption that stitching is simply 'women's work'. This book explores the personal and social histories which reveal the maker's complex engagement with the wider world.