Galleries of Maoriland introduces us to the many ways in which European colonists to New Zealand discovered, created, propagated, and romanticised the Maori world summed up in a popular nickname describing New Zealand; Maoriland. But Blackley shows that Maori were not merely passive victims: they too had a stake in this process of romanticisation. What, this book asks, were some of the Maori purposes that were served by curio displays, portrait collections, and the wider ethnological culture? Galleries of Maoriland looks at Maori prehistory in European art; the enthusiasm of settlers and Maori for portraiture and recreations of ancient life; the trade in Maori curios; and the international exhibition of this colonial culture. By illuminating New Zealand's artistic and ethnographic economy, this book provides a new understanding of our art and our culture.

How and why do works make their way into a public art collection? Who decides what will be hung on the walls, placed on plinths, displayed in cases? These important, but seldom discussed, questions lie at the heart of this ‘cultural biography’ of the 70 years during which the Robert McDougall Art Gallery was Christchurch’s civic art gallery. The book explains how the collection came together, how it developed, and how the public, and artists and critics, reacted to it. The book is presented in three parts, each of which has its own introduction. It provides an analytical framework in detail and in context by defining terms and explaining particular, recurrent concepts. These include, and indeed highlight, selection and presentation cultures derived from the core museological functions of collection and display. These, together with the framework’s other concepts, are related to mainstream methodology in the social sciences, particularly political science. The latter is especially relevant to the study of a public art gallery – owned and funded by the public and its elected representatives, and controlled by these representatives and their appointed agents. Furthermore, the framework explores the concept of post-colonial tensions between heritages – specifically indigenous, transplanted and autochthonous ones. The significance of this becomes more apparent when the concepts used in relevant previous studies of specific public art galleries in New Zealand are reviewed. There is also a strong emphasis on the development of a public Maori art collection. It is a story, too, of vivid and influential personalities – the directors and curators who fought for the gallery and the artists represented in it. But the book is more than just the story of a single gallery’s collection: it shines a light on concerns and patterns that will be familiar to galleries everywhere, and provides a unique perspective on New Zealand’s cultural development over much of the twentieth century.

Completely revised and updated. Chapters have been rewritten. Also added in a substantial new chapter on contemporary Maori and Pacific Island painting, as well as an acknowledgement of the coming wave of Asian artists.

Directory containing updated bibliographic information on all in-print New Zealand books. 33nd edition of an annual publication. The 12,500 book entries are listed by title, and there is an index to authors. Also provided are details of 975 publishers and distributors, and local agents of overseas publishers. The book trade directory includes: contacts for trade organisations, booksellers, public libraries and specialised suppliers; NZ literary awards and past winners; and sources of financial assistance for writers and publishers.

Les Cleveland is one of New Zealand's finest photographers... This book surveys six decades of Cleveland's work, with 60 stunning images printed in large-format duotone. His work from the 1950s and 60s documents a way of life in Westland that has now largely disappeared as well as distinctive and culturally important buildings in Wellington.--From book flap.