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Ovenden Lecture 2023: 'A Splendid head': The Portraits of Colin McCahon, 1938-68 by Peter Simpson
Sep
19
5:30 pm17:30
2023

Ovenden Lecture 2023: 'A Splendid head': The Portraits of Colin McCahon, 1938-68 by Peter Simpson

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Watch this Ovenden Lecture here: Ovenden Lecture 2023

Join us in the Gallery for the annual Ovenden Lecture, presented by Peter Simpson.

Peter Simpson’s topic for the Ovenden Lecture in 2023 is: ‘A beautiful head’: The Portraits of Colin McCahon, 1938-68. McCahon was not primarily a portrait artist but he did practice portraiture through much of his long career, especially in the first two decades Depending on how portraits are defined, McCahon made more than forty such works, ranging from drawings in pencil or ink to portraits in watercolours, oils or acrylics. His subjects included family members, close friends and colleagues, and anonymous people. Many are both striking and challenging. The fully illustrated lecture will trace the evolution of his portraiture through time, consider the various models, modes and methods he utilised, discuss the margins between portraiture and other figurative subjects, and focus on the most important examples from Elespie Forsyth in 1938 to Gordon H. Brown in 1968.

Peter Simpson has degrees from Canterbury and Toronto universities and taught for 50 years at universities in Canada and New Zealand. He has written and edited many books about New Zealand literature, art and cultural history, including Bloomsbury South: The Arts in Christchurch 1933-53 and titles on Ronald Hugh Morrieson, Allen Curnow, Kendrick Smithyman, Charles Brasch, Leo Bensemann and Colin McCahon. Since the mid-1990s he has curated four exhibitions and published five books about McCahon, with another due next March from Te Papa Press called Dear Colin Dear Ron on McCahon’s correspondence with Ron O’Reilly. In 2016 he curated Leo Bensemann and Friends: Portraiture and The Group (which included McCahon) for the New Zealand Portrait Gallery; in 2017 he received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Non-Fiction. He lives in Auckland.

Peter Simpson

 
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Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award Judges Talk
May
25
1:00 pm13:00
2023

Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award Judges Talk

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Join us as our Judges, Steve Gibbs (Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, Rongowhakaata, Rongomaiwahine) Graham Hoete aka "Mr G" (Ngati Awa, Ngai Te Rangi, Ngati Ranginui) and Lisa Reihana (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Hine, Ngāi Tūteauru, Ngāi Tupoto) discuss their prize-winning choices and the process of judging the Award.

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Te Rakau Taumatua Te Huinga Manu: A seminar on the life and work of Selwyn Muru
Feb
11
11:00 am11:00
2023

Te Rakau Taumatua Te Huinga Manu: A seminar on the life and work of Selwyn Muru

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On the last weekend of the exhibition Selwyn Muru: A Life’s Work, Te Pūkenga Whakaata The New Zealand Portrait Gallery hosts a seminar in the gallery to be lead by curator Dr Moana Nepia with presentations from guests Emeritus Professor Ngāhuia Te Awekotuku, artist Dr Brett Graham, Curator Taonga Māori at MTG Gallery Napier Te Hira Henderson, and former Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand.

Image: Curator Moana Nepia, photograph by Natalie Robertson

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