If Rita Angus Had Been Born In Europe or the States, There Would Be A Museum Dedicated To Her Art
About The New Zealand Artist Fiercely Dedicated To Expressing Her Visual Intelligence
The United States has Georgia O’Keeffe, the Netherlands has Vincent van Gogh, New Zealand has Rita Angus. Well, that’s how I see it and feel when I see Rita Angus’ paintings. Had she lived elsewhere in the Western world, there would by now be a museum dedicated to her.
Rita Angus didn’t sell many works during her lifetime, not because she couldn’t but because she wouldn’t. When she died in 1970, aged just 62, she left around 600 works in her cottage in Wellington. They have since been stored at Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand. They’re seldom shown to the public. The last large exhibition of Angus’ work was in the 1980s, at the National Gallery in Wellington. A major exhibition of 70 works was prepared for a show first at The Royal Academy in London and then Te Papa, but this was postponed due to Covid-19. However, thanks to the art collection of John Money, there are eight of Rita Angus’ paintings on permanent display on the bottom of the South Island, in Gore.
Rita Angus was not only a world-class artist but also a convinced pacifist. Her worldview is expressed in her own words…
