On viewing Gottfried Lindauer's "Maori Portraits" exhibition...

The Maori Portraits by Gottfried Lindauer exhibition till Feb 2017

Had a great time during my weekend class trip into town to view the "The Maori Portraits" exhibition by Gottfried Lindauer (1839 - 1926) at the Auckland Art Gallery just down the road from my old University of Auckland (as an alumni). 

Back then I didn't have time to go to the Art Gallery with so many lectures to keep up with and spent most of my time in the library, gym or study rooms. Although I did study Art History in my first year as an undergrad. Since those days, I've been a few times to the Art Gallery with the most memorable as Rita Angus (NZ artist) and Claude Monet's paintings (Impressionist artist).

It was amazing to view Lindauer's lifelike portraits and also his larger paintings that showed aspects of village life for Maori in the 1800s. Below is one of interest from his collection as it depicts an aspect of the Maori cultural beliefs that I had only read about regarding how tohunga (Maori priest/shaman) were revered and also tapu (sacred) in that they were not to live within the pa (village) site but were often away from the villagers and only fed a special way.

Lindauer captures the special place of tohunga

There were more than 120 original paintings of both Pakeha (European) and Maori portraits and each told a different story. He was a trained artist and his portraiture was stunning realistic in his brush strokes and the ways he used light. It was amazing to be able to get up close and see the the details of his paintings and how the facial tatoos of the Maori leaders looked so realistic.

We were also able to view video footage about the stories behind some of his portraits and one of the interesting portraits he painted 30 times (the same picture of a Maori woman carrying a baby) as he also used photography to assist in his paintings. Many of his portraits were oil on canvas and commissioned both from Maori and Pakeha. He painted with such painstaking detail and a limited palette in using similar colours for all his portraits.

The gallery exhibition is only there for another two months in the new year but I thoroughly enjoyed viewing the portraits and getting an insight into the stories behind the portraits and of that historical time period in the mid to late 1800s as it would have been about the time that my great great grandparents were alive in Samoa. Sadly, there are no paintings or photos that exists or am aware of and can understand how these are such treasures to family members who are able to see their ancestors facial features etc.

A highly recommended exhibition by a gifted artist from the colonial past informing post colonial nations ...