In 1949, a glamorous trailblazer opened the first modern art-dealer gallery in New Zealand. Helen Hitchings (1920–2002) was just 28 when she began promoting future icons of New Zealand art and design including Rita Angus, Toss Woollaston, Colin McCahon, and Len Castle.
Hitchings created an informal, welcoming atmosphere in her Wellington gallery. She encouraged visitors – who had seldom seen modern art and design outside of magazines – to ‘look at and feel everything’.