Rita Angus: Artist

Rita Angus 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.

Painting of Douglas MacDiarmid sitting in a chair. A table beside him contains books and smoke rising. Behind him is the Devil, hills and flowers, and a dagger

Douglas MacDiarmid in Rita Angus’ ‘Figure Allegory’

Rita Angus, Figure Allegory, about 1945, oil on canvas. On loan from the Rita Angus Estate. © Estate of Rita Angus. Te Papa

Rita Angus looks towards the photographer in a portrait of her painting herself

Audio and video about New Zealand painter Rita Angus

The life, work, and relationships of Rita Angus.

Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist

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

Closed

18 Dec 2021 – 25 Apr 2022

Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga

Painting of a rural scene. There are tall mountains and a lake in the distance, with a river running towards a town in the foreground

Audio descriptions for Rita Angus New Zealand Modernist

This audio descriptive introduction to Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist, introduces the immersive first gallery and provides audio descriptions for a selection of paintings in this exhibition.

Rita Angus, Cleopatra, 1938, oil on canvas. Purchased 1998 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds © Reproduced courtesy of the Estate of Rita Angus. Te Papa (1998-0028-2)

Touring exhbition: Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist

Rita Angus created a distinctive vision of a new, modern New Zealand. This exhibition brings together a rich collection of 20 of her oil paintings.

A green rectangle with the letters AD in white on a darker green circle

Audio descriptions for Rita Angus New Zealand Modernist on tour

This page provides audio descriptions for a selection of paintings in the touring exhibition of Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist.

Rita Angus: An Artist’s Life

Rita Angus: An Artist's Life is the first biography of this significant and much-loved New Zealand artist

Rita Angus: Life & Vision (exhibition catalogue)

Rita Angus: Life & Vision is the accompanying catalogue to the Te Papa exhibition and which marks the centenary of Rita Angus’s birth.

A paintbrush in a glass of water and swirling blue paint

A Painter’s Journey: Rita Angus’s Central Otago

This film celebrates Rita Angus’s artistic practice – diving into her painting Central Otago (1953–56/1969).

Immersive stories: Rita Angus paintings on Google Arts and Culture

Immerse yourself in ten stories about Rita Angus and some of her paintings from our collection on Google Arts and Culture. Learn about her life and thoughts while she was painting in locations around Aotearoa New Zealand.

Jill Trevelyan: biography and 10 questions about Rita Angus

Jill Trevelyan, the author of Rita Angus: An Artist's Life, discusses her new book with Te Papa Press

Lizzie Bisley: biography and 10 questions about Rita Angus

Lizzie Bisley, the author of Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist | Ringatoi Hou o Aotearoa, discusses her new book with Te Papa Press.

Three people on stage playing instruments

Watch: Rita by Quentin Angus

Quentin Angus is a composer based in New York, and the great-nephew of celebrated painter Rita Angus. Watch and listen to a performance of Quentin’s composition, Rita, inspired by the artist’s life, values, and her outstanding and diverse body of work.

Rita Angus: An Artist’s Life

Revised edition of the award-winning biography of one of New Zealand's most famous women artists.

Stories in the paint: the making of Rutu

Rita Angus’s painting, Rutu, is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most iconic portraits. Here, Conservator Paintings Linda Waters reveals some of the hidden histories she learned while preparing Rutu for exhibition.