The Eastern Southland Gallery will play host to a talk by Lizzie Bisley, Curator Modern Art at Te Papa, this Saturday.

Bisley is the curator of Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist He Ringatoi Hou o Aotearoa, pieces of which are currently displayed at the Gore gallery. 

She studied at Victoria University of Wellington and the Royal College of Art, London, before working as a Curator at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. 

Rita Angus, Cleopatra, 1938, oil on canvas. Purchased 1998 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. © Reproduced courtesy of the Estate of Rita Angus. Te Papa (1998-0028-2).

Her research is focussed on histories of modernity, and she is interested in the close relationships between art, design and architecture in the twentieth century.

While at the Victoria and Albert, Bisley curated a number of major exhibitions on modernism and twentieth century design. 

The exhibit currently displayed in Gore brings together 20 works by Rita Angus, considered to be one of New Zealand’s most iconic 20th- century artists.

The paintings span Angus’s life and career as an artist, drawing out the themes of pacifism, feminism and nature that shaped so much of her work. 

This exhibition includes many of Angus’s most important works, including Rutu, 1951, Cleopatra, 1938, and Central Otago, 1953-56/1969. 

The event on Saturday will involve afternoon tea from 3pm at the Maruawai Centre, and then a talk by Bisley at the Eastern Southland Gallery at 4pm.

Visitors to the exhibition throughout its stay in Gore also go in the draw to win two return Economy Class tickets to Singapore, courtesy of sponsors Singapore Airlines.