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Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist Rita Angus: He Ringatoi Hou o Aotearoa

Rita Angus created a distinctive vision of a new, modern New Zealand. This landmark exhibition celebrates 40 years of her work.

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Rita Angus is one of New Zealand’s most iconic artists.

Over the course of her life she produced a remarkable body of drawings, watercolours, and paintings. A committed feminist, and a pacifist, Angus’ work was deeply entwined with her view of the world. In her portraits and landscape paintings, with their distinctive clear colours and flat, graphic style, she created a unique image of 20th-century Aotearoa.

This exhibition was developed in partnership by the Royal Academy of Arts, London and Te Papa.

Painting of a small orange single-building train station. Behind are large rolling hills and a cloudy sky. A man sits by the station, smoking a pipe.

Caption

Rita Angus, Cass (detail), 1936, oil on canvas on board. © Reproduced courtesy of the Estate of Rita Angus. On loan from Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū

Rita Angus Art Studio

Get creative with activities inspired by Rita Angus’s artworks, in the Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist art studio.

Experiment with the effects of colour layering, create a portrait using symbols and signs, or pick up a whānau trail and use it to explore the exhibition.

Free, for all ages.

Young people sitting in a room drawing

Caption

People in the Rita Angus Art Studio, 2022. Te Papa

Activities

  • A woman stands before a giant, two-floor projection of the Central Otago landscape
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    General view of the large-scale projection in Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist | He Ringatoi Hou o Aotearoa, 2021. Photo by Maarten Holl. Te Papa (197297)

  • Oil painting of a young Māori man in a priestly pose. An aura surrounds his head and he holds a paintbrush. Behind him a rainbow appears out of stormy clouds
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    General view of Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist | He Ringatoi Hou o Aotearoa, 2021. Photo by Maarten Holl. Te Papa (197260)

    Left: Rita Angus, St Luke, 1953–55, oil on canvas. On loan from private collection
    Right: Rita Angus, Portrait of Betty Curnow, 1942, oil on canvas. On loan from Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

  • A woman stands between two paintings with her back to the camera
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    General view of Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist | He Ringatoi Hou o Aotearoa, 2021. Photo by Maarten Holl. Te Papa (197260)

    Left: Rita Angus, A goddess of mercy, 1945-1947, oil on canvas. On loan from Christchurch Art Galley Te Puna o Waiwhetū
    Right: Rita Angus, Rutu, 1951, oil on canvas. Purchased 1992 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. Te Papa (1992-0025-1)

Exhibition highlights Taonga whakaatu

More artworks by Rita Angus

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