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vowed ‘idealistic socialist’ and painter Rita Angus (1908-70) was a feminist before it was popular to be one and a pacifist her whole life, even during World War II when it was extremely unpopular to be one. Although involved in establishing a ‘New Zealand painting’, as distinct from the prevailing muted colonial depictions, she did not cater to nationalistic agendas. Throughout her life Angus avoided pandering to prevailing style. This trenchant individualism informed her art practice—and those artists later to be influenced by her life, work and vision.
Recently the artist’s work and personal life have been freshly tilled: in Jill Trevelyan’s wonderfully replete doorstop biography Rita Angus: An Artist’s Life; in Gaylene Preston’s intrepid documentary Lovely Rita1; and in the touring survey exhibition ‘Rita Angus: Life and Vision’ and eponymous catalogue, developed by New Zealand’s national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa. This attention marks the centenary of Angus’s birth, presenting the opportunity to overlay newly sourced biographical information onto readings of the artist’s oeuvre.2 And of course it is overdue. However, survey exhibitions paired with substantial catalogues inevitably become key documents for further scholarship. The realities of the art history machine narrow the scope of discussion, weeding out the interesting but ‘minor’ narratives and over-blowing the quotable and the pattern-forming. In the current climate of creating heroic status for Angus, surely we risk extracting her from her historical context. The Te Papa presentation begins to undo the narrowing of our understanding, but the canon machine has historically limited interpretations of Angus’s work. I am sure she would not approve of becoming a hook upon which the narrative of New Zealand representation is pegged—this is... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline