Library and Archives
Digitised publications
Graphica Britannica
Download PDFCatalogue for the Exhibition Graphica Britannica held Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū 13 May - 8 October 2006.
Highlights from the Rex Nan Kivell gift of prints by some of the most highly regarded British printmakers of the early to mid twentieth century.
Spare parts
Simplicity and Splendour
Ink on Paper works list
Related
Notes
Death and the woodcutter by Leo Bensemann
This article first appeared as 'Death mastered' in The Press on 28 March 2013.
Notes
Ruth Lowinsky by Eric Gill
This article first appeared as 'An oblique profile' in The Press on 12 July 2013.
Notes
Five eyes by Eric Ravilious
This article first appeared as 'Artist captured poetry in wood carving' in The Press on 11 November 2014.
Notes
Lorton, Cumberland by Tom Chadwick
This article first appeared as 'Wood engraving artist finally won recognition' in The Press on 27 June 2014.
Notes
The Print Collection
If the question "what is the largest individual collection area numerically held by the Gallery?" was to be asked, the answer would have to be the Works on Paper collection, within which are 2145 original contemporary and historical prints, the earliest dating from the second half of the fifteenth century.
Notes
St Brendan and the Sea Monsters by Robert Gibbings
This article first appeared in The Press on 14 December 2005
At just 14 cm tall, the exquisite St Brendan and the Sea Monsters by Irish-born Robert Gibbings (1889-1958) is one of the smallest works in Christchurch Art Gallery's collection, but carries with it some of the largest tales. A rhythmic composition of swirling sea serpents, stingrays and sharks, this finely-crafted woodcut print tells the story of 6th century Irish explorer-monk St. Brendan, or Brendan the Navigator, whose recorded travels were an important part of medieval European folklore, and which continue to fascinate.
Article
Tomorrow, Book, Caxton Press, Landfall
In the decades before and after the Second World War, Christchurch experienced a remarkable artistic efflorescence that encompassed the visual arts, literature, music, theatre and the publishing of books and journals. And the phenomenon was noticed beyond these islands. For instance, in his 1955 autobiography, English publisher and editor of Penguin New Writing and London Magazine, John Lehmann, wrote (with a measure of exaggeration, perhaps) that of all the world’s cities only Christchurch at that time acted ‘as a focus of creative literature of more than local significance’.
Collection
Robert Gibbings St Brendan and the Sea Monsters
Robert Gibbings was an early convert to wood engraving and quickly appreciated its qualities. He once wrote:
Discipline in art: was that what I’d come to London for? Impressionism was what I thought I was after. I couldn’t think what all this hard labour on wood was about. There was no tradition at the time; it seemed a lot of finicky gouging to get a few lines that might have been obtained more easily with a pen or brush. But slowly a love of the wood came upon me. I began to enjoy the crisp purr of the graver as it furrowed the polished surface. I began to appreciate the cleanness of the white line that it incised: even the simplest silhouettes had an austere quality, a dignity, that could not be achieved by other means. Clear, precise statement, that was what it amounted to. Near enough wouldn’t do: it had to be just right.
The Golden Age 18 December 2015 – 1 May 2016
An illustration from 'Beasts and Saints', translated by Helen Waddell, published by Constable, 1949.
Collection
E. Mervyn Taylor Native Fuchsia
Mervyn Taylor was one of the few New Zealand artists to successfully work with the wood engraving medium during the 20th century, reflecting the medium’s revival in England at the time. Initially trained as a jeweller’s engraver, he made a successful transition to wood engraving, one of the most difficult print mediums to master, and produced work that focused on Māori and New Zealand subject matter. Taylor was born in Auckland. In 1952 he was awarded the Association of New Zealand Art Societies Scholarship, which allowed him to study Māori life and culture in Te Kaha in the eastern Bay of Plenty. He was elected a member of the Society of Illustrators, New York, in 1950 and a fellow of the Institute of Arts and Letters, Linau, in 1953. Taylor held a solo exhibition at the Museum of Natural History in New York in 1954, and his work was included in the First International Biennale of Prints in Tokyo in 1957.
The Golden Age 18 December 2015 – 1 May 2016
Collection
E. Mervyn Taylor Tauhou Feeding Chick
Aotearoa’s best-known and respected printmaker working during the twentieth century, Mervyn Taylor produced at least 239 wood-engravings over the course of his career, and many more linocuts as well. He initially worked as a jeweller, for which his training included engraving. Unlike his contemporaries who trained at art schools throughout the country and abroad, Mervyn was self-taught. His prints focused on subjects that were unique to Aotearoa at a time when a national identity was at the forefront of Pākehā art, including elements from Māori culture as well as landscapes and native flora and fauna. His wood-engravings remain popular and are highly sought after.
Ink on Paper: Aotearoa New Zealand Printmakers of the Modern Era, 11 February – 28 May 2023