Dream Collectors - One Hundred Years of Art in New Zealand
In the 19th century, European settlers dreamed of `a golden city upon the side of a mountain' - misty peaks and golden spires. The settler dream became a Maori nightmare. In 1875, Te Kooti Arikirangi te Turuki wrote, `Meake ka pa te whiu ke te motu katoa' - The whip will shortly be applied to the whole of the land. The whip of war stung the Waikato landscapes of Alfred Sharpe in the 1870s, and the painted documents of Michael Shepherd in 1996. The complex braiding of dreams continues in art of the 20th century where we often find a strong sense of the past acting in the present to colour how we see the world. Dream Collectors was produced in partnership between the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki...