An exhibition of the Royal Society of New Zealand in partnership with the New Zealand Portrait Gallery

Date: 31 March – 22 May 2011 (touring New Zealand 2011-2013)

Curated by award winning science writer and historian Rebecca Priestley

The Art of Science features paintings from the Royal Society of New Zealand’s fascinating private collection of portraits of prominent past and present scientists.

It includes interpretive text telling the stories of the scientists – their innovations and successes.

As well, it captures the connections between artists and scientists, and between science and art. For example, it looks at the different ways that scientists and artists appreciate colour and light.

The exhibition marks the first time that this significant collection of portraits of New Zealand scientists has been gathered in one place and shown to the public.

The Portraits

The Art of Science includes works by New Zealand’s leading contemporary portrait painters such as Marianne Muggeridge, Irene Ferguson and Stephen Martyn Welch, as well as many portraits commissioned in the 1970s and 1980s by the Royal Society of New Zealand’s president Sir Charles Fleming.

Scientists in the collection include Alan MacDiarmid, Ernest Rutherford, James Hector, Paul Callaghan, Charles Fleming, Ernest Marsden and Maurice Wilkins.

DNA portrait
The exhibition features a DNA portrait, and is one of the first times that a DNA portrait has been shown in New Zealand. It was created by Canadian company DNA-11 using a DNA sample from Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor.

Exhibits
As well as the portrait collection, there are exhibits of tools used by early scientists, their field books and artists’ sketch books.

Following on from the Wellington showing, the exhibition will be touring New Zealand until 2013.

This exhibition is a partnership between the New Zealand Portrait Gallery and the Royal Society of New Zealand, and is proudly sponsored by Resene Paints