Whakaaturaka
Exhibitions
Taipoeka
Events
E Whakaaturia ana Ināianei
On display
Gentry, Slaveys, Natives: Class and Art in Colonial Canterbury
Nicholas Chevalier Crossing the Teremakau River 1876. Watercolour. Collection of Te Papa Tongarewa, gift of Caroline Chevalier, the artist’s widow, England, 1919
Talk
Past event
Philip Carter Family Auditorium
Free
Writer and historian Stevan Eldred-Grigg examines our exhibition Pickaxes and Shovels and explore what it reveals about class and art in colonial Canterbury.
Canterbury colonists looked at the world – like everyone in every period of history – not just with their eyes but through the lenses of culture. One of the strongest of all cultural lenses was class. The middle class and gentry drew, daubed, watched opera and leafed through illustrated books. The working class did not; they had other ways of seeing things.
Related reading: Talk, Free event
Exhibition
Pickaxes and Shovels
16 February – 5 August 2018
See the lives of the early settlers and Kāi Tahu tangata whenua in this selection of extraordinary works by frontier Pākehā artists.
