The largest city on the South Island once boasted that it was “More English than England.” It might still be true, if one thinks of Croydon, Bradford, or some such. Unfortunately the city seems to still be struggling to recover from the 2011 earthquake. The once stately city center is mostly gone, replaced (if at all) by modern construction. There’s also more graffiti than one expects to see in a Kiwi city.
Maybe it’s me. I was never overly fond of the place with its British pretensions and tiresome “wizard.”
“So what did you do, Mr. Grumpy?”, I hear you ask. We visited the Art Gallery and saw three interesting shows: one on a local painter who worked near Kaiteriteri (where we were a week or so earlier), one about “alternative presentations of body images” or something, and one on British linocuts from the Jazz age. The last was my favorite.
Jazz age my fave too. Thanks for sharing your fabulous trip with us.
Loved these!!
Ha, we saw The Wizard, atop his ladder and expounding on his map with NZ and Australia on top, back in 1993.
I might have been less amused had I known (according to that always-accurate (ahem!) ) font of knowledge, Wikipedia, that he held the view that “women cause wars through their shopping habits”. Hopefully that was just part of his schtick!
Thought I saw glimpses of Rivera and Kahlo’s influence in some of it. Really quite ejoyable all around. Of course, my tastes were developed among the fine art of Leaburg and Blue River. So what do I know.
Interested by all! Found hand with face a little alien, man face-off with chicken a little nostalgic to my dinner (chicken Caesar)—But I agree with you—the Jazz Age art was the most enjoyable for me. Are some of these coming home with you?
Thank you for sharing your great photography! Love, MEB