Andrew Paul Wood Greer Twiss, Sculptor, by Greer Twiss, Rodney Wilson and Robin Woodward (Ron Sang Publications, 2013), 387 pp., $140 Since 2003 the Auckland architect Ron Sang has been publishing lavishly illustrated monographs on some of New Zealand’s most important and fascinating artists (not excluding craft) of the Modern period. So far, veterans Len […]
The Roll of Honour
Nina Seja ANZAC: Photographs by Laurence Aberhart, with an introduction by Jock Phillips (Victoria University Press, 2014), 108 pp., $60 What are the implications of cultural remembrance? As theorist Marita Sturken points out in her book Tangled Memories, the ‘process of cultural memory is bound up in complex political stakes and meanings.’ The output of […]
Igniting in Small Puffs
Lynley Edmeades Edwin’s Egg and other Poetic Novellas, by Cilla McQueen (Otago University Press, 2014), 264 pp., $39.95 Reviewing Cilla McQueen’s recent collection of poetic novellas is a bit like trying to explain a rainbow to your colour-blind brother-in-law – it is difficult to find language capacious enough. At its most simple, Edwin’s Egg is […]
Man in a Room Selling Dreams
David Eggleton Peter McLeavey: The life and times of a New Zealand art dealer, by Jill Trevelyan (Te Papa Press, 2013), 496 pp., $64.99 ‘I am not slaving my guts out as a dishwasher for kicks,’ Peter McLeavey wrote in a letter to Pat Hanly in December 1968. McLeavey was at that time working as […]
This is the Path of Glory
Max Oettli Images of War: New Zealand and the First World War in photographs, by Glyn Harper, (Harper Collins, 2013), 399 pp., $99.99 ‘You were in the Great War?’ I said. ‘Tell me about that.’ ‘I’ve been in all the wars,’ Johnston said, ‘but I couldn’t tell you anything about it.’ ‘You won’t talk about […]
The Misshapen Tea Cosy Head
Mary Macpherson Green with Envy, by Layla Rudneva-Mackay, (Clouds and Starkwhite, 2012), 120 pp., $59.95 Green with envy, red with rage, white with fear – in Western culture these are some of the human emotions we’ve associated with particular colours. Colour psychology also pairs colours with qualities, like yellow with emotion, green with balance (in […]
An Empty Tent Flapping in the Wind
Kathryn Mitchell 45 South: A journey across southern New Zealand, by Laurence Fearnley with photographs by Arno Gasteiger, (Penguin, 2013), 191 pp., $65.00 Our journey in this book begins at Hilderthorpe, where a large boulder marks an invisible line laid down by map-makers: 45 degrees south, halfway between the equator and the south pole. 45 […]
Smugglers’ Contraband
David Eggleton Promoting Prosperity: The art of early New Zealand advertising, by Peter Alsop and Gary Stewart (Craig Potton Publishing, 2013), 440 pp., $79.99; From Earth’s End: The best of New Zealand comics, by Adrian Kinnaird (Godwit, 2013) 447 pp., $59.99 You approach Promoting Prosperity: The art of early New Zealand advertising as if through […]
The Orient and Elsewhere
Andrew Paul Wood Incomplete Works, by Dylan Horrocks, (Victoria University Press, 2014), 192 pp., $35; A Rainbow Reader, by Tessa Laird, (Clouds, 2013), 192 pp., $25 Dylan Horrocks’ Incomplete Works tidily fills a gap in the published oeuvre of one of our greatest living comic strip auteurs, snapping up the unconsidered trifles of his shorter […]
Eclectic Styles
David Eggleton R.A. Lawson: Victorian architect of Dunedin, by Norman Ledgerwood (Historic Cemeteries Conservation Trust, 2013), 256 pp., $74.99 New Zealand’s Lost Heritage: The stories behind our forgotten landmarks, by Richard Wolfe (New Holland, 2013), 192 pp., $49.99 Converted Houses: New Zealand architecture recycled, by Lucinda Diack, (Penguin, 2012), 207 pp., $65 On a Saturday […]
Unrepentant Lovers of Modernism
Michael Findlay Modern: New Zealand Homes from 1938 to 1977, by Jeremy Hansen (Godwit, 2013), 352 pp., $75.00 There is something fundamentally wrong about the oxymoronic idea of ‘retro modernism’, but this desire to recapture the essence of mid-century architecture is what has driven design taste here for the past quarter century. It has been […]
Woman with a Rolleiflex Camera
Sally Blundell Self-Portrait, by Marti Friedlander with Hugo Manson, (Auckland University Press, 2013) 264 pp., $59.99 ‘I don’t mind explaining [my work],’ writes Marti Friedlander at the end of her autobiography Self-Portrait. ‘But I also don’t want people to know too much. Even now, writing this book, I wonder if I’m giving too much away. […]
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