Chartwell Notes

Gregory O’Brien painted these thickly annotated maps of Aotearoa New Zealand in 2004 as endpapers for his rambunctious Auckland University Press book Welcome to the South Seas: Contemporary New Zealand Art for Young People. At the time—more than twenty years ago—Chartwell partnered with O’Brien and AUP to distribute this book, along with its sequel Back and Beyond: New Zealand Painting for the Young & Curious, to schools throughout the country. Through this collaboration, these elaborate maps of New Zealand art history, past and present, were added to The Chartwell Collection.

In addition to offering a bird’s-eye view across ngā motu, the works capture a particular moment in time, prompting reflection on what is transient and what endures. In the twenty-two years since Welcome to the South Seas was published, many of the senior artists it profiles—Bill Culbert, Ralph Hotere, Bill Hammond—have passed away. Yet the artworks remain. Otematata will be home to Michael Hight’s beehives long after he is gone, and Cass will always belong to Rita Angus.

Description

Like most New Zealanders, I was brought up on all kinds of maps: road-maps, illustrated postcard-maps, and class-room maps which divided the country according to land usage. Over the years, my own mental map of New Zealand was shaped largely by the artists and writers who lived (and the work that was produced) in various places the length and breadth of the country. When writing a book for young readers about contemporary art, Welcome to the South Seas, I found the opportunity of mapping the book's contents irresistible. Instead of hydro-dams or rugby parks, the two maps featured artists' birth-places and public art galleries. Here we have Aotearoa/New Zealand as a field of imaginative energy and potential.
Gregory O’Brien to Ron Brownson
4 September 2017