City Gallery Wellington presents a tribute to a longstanding Wellington artist, writer and publisher. Dame Janet Paul’s artworks go on display at the Michael Hirschfeld Gallery.
-We are delighted to celebrate such a significant artist who has given so much to the development of arts and culture in New Zealand- says Paula Savage, director of City Gallery Wellington. -These artworks, taken from four decades of Janet Paul’s career, are but a small selection from her impressive body of work.-
The paintings of figures in their lived-in environments bring out the magical in the everyday life. They show private moments with family and friends in relaxed surroundings, during holidays in the Coromandel or while at home in Wellington. Alongside large oil paintings, there are a number of watercolours, etchings and monoprints.
A self-taught artist, Dame Janet Paul has worked as a book designer, typographer, publisher and librarian. For 20 years she and her husband Blackwood Paul published work by significant New Zealand writers. She continued to run the business for several years alone until it became Longman Paul Limited.
Janet Paul has been exhibiting in New Zealand public and dealer galleries since the 1950s. She was Art Librarian at the Alexander Turnbull Library during the 1970s and has co-authored books on artists such as Rita Angus and Edith Collier. Her work was included in the recent group exhibition of senior artists The Crowded Dowse: Eighties Show at the Dowse Art Museum. In 1992, she was awarded a Doctorate of Literature by Victoria University and, in 1997, the Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
The artist lives in Thorndon, Wellington. Her work is part of significant private and public collections including the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and the Alexander Turnbull Library.
A limited edition tribute publication will be on sale for the duration of the exhibition.
The Michael Hirschfeld Gallery opened in November 1999 as a tribute to arts patron and former Labour Party President, the late Michael Hirschfeld. The new gallery, on the ground floor of the City Gallery, Wellington, shows projects by Wellington artists, with exhibitions changing monthly.
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