Te Hōtoke (Winter Season) opens at Tauranga Art Gallery Sunday 7th May with Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist and joined by Hiria Anderson-Mita’s Amio.
Tauranga Art Gallery Director, Sonya Korohina says, “We are thrilled to present the work of two painters who are masters of the medium. From different eras, Angus and Anderson-Mita paint worlds that are rooted in a deeply personal connection to Aotearoa’s landscape and people.”
Angus’s paintings span her life and career as an artist, drawing out the themes of pacifism, feminism and nature that shaped so much of her work.
This exhibition includes many of Angus’s most important works, including Rutu, 1951, Cleopatra, 1938, and Central Otago, 1953 56/1969. It will also feature two significant recent acquisitions. Marjorie Marshall (1938-39/1943) is a remarkable portrait of Angus’s friend and fellow artist Marshall, set against the backdrop of Central Otago mountains. The Aviatrix (1933) is one of Angus’s most important early works – a striking portrait of her sister Edna, the first woman pilot in the East Coast Aero Club, wearing her flying costume.
Te Papa Head of Art Charlotte Davy says Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist is a show for the whole family to enjoy. “This exhibition will introduce a new generation of New Zealanders to Rita Angus’ work,” she says. “It is remarkable how much power and relevance her paintings still have today.”
Born and raised in Ōtorohanga where she still lives and works, Hiria Anderson-Mita’s (Rereahu, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Apakura) practice focusses on the lives of the people in her community. Her richly layered paintings subtly draw attention to intertribal relationships and relationships between family members, as well as to the politics and environments that show the nuances and connections between Māori culture and twenty first century life.
For Anderson-Mita it also refers to her personal experience living as a young adult in Merivale, Tauranga. She says, ‘coming back home to Tauranga brings comfort and a feeling of coming full circle. The paintings in this exhibition are reflections of our lives travelled.
Te Hōtoke | Winter Season will be complemented with a suite of public programmes including:
Claudia Jarma Memorial Lecture 2023:
Lizzie Bisley, Curator of Modern Art at Te Papa Tongarewa will speak on Te Papa touring exhibition Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist | He Ringatoi Hou o Aotearoa.
Image: Rita Angus, Central Otago, 1953-56/1969, oil on canvas. Gift of Douglas Lilburn, 1972. © Reproduced courtesy of the Estate of Rita Angus. Te Papa (1972-0030-1)
