Whakaaturaka
Exhibitions
Taiopeka
Events
E Whakaaturia ana Ināianei
On display
Introduction to Art History
Olivia Spencer Bower Happy Spinners c.1970. Acrylic. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1981
Talk
Philip Carter Family Auditorium
Free
This is the third session in our Art Histories of Aotearoa series presented by curator Melanie Oliver, who will explore art historian Julie King's persepective on art history and look at women in art, gender and sexuality.
Julie King wrote biographies on Ōtautahi artists Margaret Stoddart and Olivia Spencer Bower, giving focus to overlooked artists of the region. Starting with an introduction to feminism, the women’s art movement and artists of the 1980s, Melanie will also discuss contemporary and queer practices, highlighting some of the key exhibitions and artworks of the past 50 years.
Related reading: Free event
Commentary
Do You See?
With the death of Julie King late in 2018, art and art history in Aotearoa New Zealand lost one of its great champions and major scholars. Julie was born in Yorkshire and grew up and was educated in Alnwick, Northumberland; she moved to Christchurch in 1975 to take up a role lecturing in the newly formed art history department at the University of Canterbury. She retired three decades later, having pioneered the teaching of New Zealand art in Canterbury.
