This work was displayed with this label on the occasion of the artist's death in January 2025.

Here at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū we were saddened to hear of Rudolf Boelee’s death. Rudolf lived and worked in Otautahi Christchurch for several decades and was an integral part of the city’s art community. His painting practice incorporated photographic imagery from a variety of sources including science fiction, magazines and film, which he often enlarged and transferred directly onto his canvases using solvents or screenprinting techniques. He described his work as “history painting", and it represented an attempt to seek social significance in events and situations from 1950s Aotearoa New Zealand and relate them to contemporary life. Rudolf was born in the Netherlands, immediately prior to the Nazi occupation under which he grew up, and he later experienced the painful reconstruction of the country after World War Two. He arrived in Aotearoa in 1963,and had a variety of jobs in the hotel, freezing works, dairy and paper manufacturing industries before deciding to become an artist in the late 1960s. He went on to build a career that lasted more than four decades. Alongside his work as a painter, Rudolf also worked as a stage designer for Otautahi Christchurch’s Court Theatre and Free Theatre and created book and record cover designs. We - and many others in Otautahi and elsewhere - will miss his authenticity, warmth and dry sense of humour.

Beste Rudolf, rust in vrede.