Portrait of a Century - The History of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts 1882 - 1982

PORTRAIT OF A CENTURY is the history of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts over the past one hundred years.

The Academy was founded in 1882 to promote and encourage fine arts in New Zealand. The first exhibition was held in July the following year.

This volume celebrates both events: the academy's administrative history and artistic participation. More than 4,000 exhibiting artists were listed in Academy catalogues during that period. Their names are recorded here.

There are more than three hundred illustrations featuring some of the works exhibited at the Academy, many in colour.

The role of the officers and administrators in shaping the Academy's history makes facinating reading and we can admire their foresight today - it was from works gifted by the Academy that the National Gallery formed its original collection.

The book ends with a list of artists who exhibited in the Centenary Exhibition in July 1983. The response to this Exhibition was overwhelming and shows that having finished the first one hundred years with enthusiasm, the Academy steps into the future with undiminished vigour.

- from the inside cover.

Published by Millwood Press Ltd., 1983.
Very good secondhand condition. Fading along the very top and bottom of the front and back cover. Very minor rusty discolouration in the front end-papers. Slight fading of the front cover of the otherwise intact dust-jacket.