Rita Angus


Rita Angus (1908--1970) studied at the Canterbury College School of Art and briefly at Auckland's Elam School of Art and Design. The regional realist style which she developed provided the model for a distinctive New Zealand style of painting.

Angus depicted local motifs which came to be seen as a typically New Zealand style, i.e. being linear, hard-edged and sharply-defined. The reason being for this manner of painting arises because New Zealand light is clear and harsh, giving greater definition and tonal contrasts to forms in the landscape.
Angus drew inspiration from the art of the past and from her contemporaries.
Key influences were the simplicity and structure of Byzantine and Medieval art; the structure of Cezanne and the Cubists which offered useful models; the work of Christopher Perkins which provided insight into modern English art; and an exhibition of contemporary Canadian painting which toured NZ in 1938 and reinforced this direction.
Angus painted her main regionalist imagery in the 1930s and early 40s. Her early style was more gestural and impressionistic. The turning point for this change came when Perkins' work was discussed and reproduced in Art in New Zealand in 1931.

Cass, 1936, is perhaps the key regionalist image painted in the 1930s by Angus. It was produced after she had made studies outside, but was finished in the studio. Each part was carefully planned out to give a clarity and order to the symbolic imagery. While the title is specific the image is general.

Central Otago, 1940, is non-specific in location. It is a composite image built up out of various motifs drawn from different locations at different times. Angus has composed the motifs in defined coloured areas with no central focus. There is little atmospheric perspective. Constructed objects are juxtaposed against the vast landscape which dwarfs them. Angus uses symbolism to communicate her view of the New Zealand landscape as an ideal, peaceful place.

Fog, Hawke's Bay was painted thirty years later, being a composition in what she called "a tradition of squares". It was painted from notes she made while traveling in the district, and is a summation of her landscape style and ideals which often ended in a form of primitive cubism.

Similar stylistic developments can be seen in the treatment of figurative subject matter. Areas of similarity are the flattened form. Under the influence of overseas modernism the figure has been progressively simplified and abstracted. Figures are treated expressionistically as a vehicle to explore the artist’s feeling.

Angus became especially interested in portraiture during the Depression. She frequently used the female figure as a vehicle for dealing with her philosophical and feminist ideas. In the mid- 1930s her portraiture moved from exact representation to more imagined rendering. She treated the figure as she did with the landscape, evening it out, emphasizing strong features and painting it in clear light, without expressionist brushstrokes.

Head of a Maori Boy was completed in Christchurch in 1938, only a few years after she left Canterbury School of Art. In portrait painting Angus took care to note any special characteristics of the sitter's personality. She aimed at expressing, by means of simplification of form, line and colour "the content of the sitter's interesting complexity and diversity of moods".

The above features are observable in Angus's Portrait of Betty Curnow, painted in 1942. She follows the structure of Renaissance portraits using a pyramidal composition and the Golden Section to create a balanced painting.
Parts of the portrait shared similarities to American Gothic, for example the sharp outline, rural qualities and the interest in pattern.
There are a number of features which identify the sitter as an individual in the work. The portrait shows a photograph of Curnow's father, Angus landscape refer the viewer to the landscape and farming lifestyle which was Curnow's heritage and the books on the shelves indicate an educated household.
The painting is typical of Angus's style at this point in her career.

Angus painted 55 self-portraits. Each one portrayed, through pictorial clues, her different stages of life.
Self-portrait (1936--37) was painted shortly after her marriage broke down. Angus painted this portrait as a visual declaration of her new status as a professional artist and a woman of the city. Her intention was to symbolically express her personality through simplicity of line and colour. She uses particular features to portray herself as a sophisticated, worldly woman. The colour is low-keyed and monotone. The figure takes up most of the picture space dominating the area it inhabits. She looks assertively at the viewer, confident of her status.





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