Painting a Picture: The Art of Biography

In a letter to a friend written in the 1930s, Frances Hodgkins said, “They’re lovely people, the New Zealanders, so hospitable and so charming. But for God’s sake don’t talk to them about Art!” How times have changed. New Zealanders today relish books about the artists who have interpreted their country, its people and landscapes. These three biographers talk about the fine art of writing about ‘creative lives’..

Dr Joanne Drayton was awarded the Alexander Turnbull National Library Fellowship for research in 2007, to research and write a biography of Ngaio Marsh, integrating books, theatrical triumphs, and her painting career. Ngaio Marsh: Her Life of Crime will be launched during the Christchurch Writers’ Festival, Joanne had also written about expatriate New Zealand artists Edith Collier, Rhona Haszard and Frances Hodgkins.

Jill Trevelyan is a curator and writer with an interest in mid-20th-century New Zealand art. Her earlier work, Toss Woollaston: A Life in Letters, was shortlisted for the 2005 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Her latest book, Rita Angus: An Artist’s Life, paints a vivid picture of Rita Angus the person - curious and forthright, staunchly pacifi st and feminist, and wholly dedicated to her art.

Pat Unger, artist, critic and author, was invited by Bill Sutton to collaborate with him in writing W. A. Sutton: Painter. The pair established a rapport through discussion on many topics, including the complexity of teaching creativity, and the joys, or otherwise, of traditional, modern and post-modern art. After his death, Pat wrote the recently published Bill’s Story, which tells the Sutton story through the archival material he left behind.