Stanley Spencer: Everyday Miracles

25 October 2003 - 8 February 2004 in the Entire Gallery

Everyday Miracles is the first substantial exhibition in New Zealand of one of the greatest painters and few true visionaries in twentieth century British art, Stanley Spencer (1891 - 1959).

Described as the most remarkable figurative and religious painter of his time, Spencer is famous for his visions of the miraculous in the everyday. Comical, humane and visionary, his art was driven by his passionate religious conviction and turbulent personal life. Considered a maverick within the English art tradition, Stanley Spencer's paintings are rich and complex, often with conflicting and controversial meanings.

Everyday Miracles draws largely on a particularly strong body of Spencer's works in New Zealand and Australian private and public collections, as well as key works from English public collections including the Tate. The exhibition contains a selection of religious studies, portraits, narratives and landscapes each of which demonstrate his meticulous attention to detail. Also included in the exhibition are two of Spencer's best known self portraits from 1914 and 1956, from the Tate's collection.