Exhibitions » Exhibition Archive » 2004 » Rosalie Gascoigne
Rosalie Gascoigne
22 February - 16 May 2004 in the Entire Gallery
This exhibition celebrates the career of one of Australasia’s most successful artists, Rosalie Gascoigne (1917–1999) and stands as the centrepiece in the visual arts programme for the 2004 New Zealand International Arts Festival.
Rosalie Gascoigne’s works can be found in prestigious collections around the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, yet little is known about her in her birth place. After spending the first 26 years of her life in New Zealand, Gascoigne moved to Canberra. She enjoyed much success on both sides of the Tasman; highlights in her career include being the first woman artist to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1982 and the 1990 exhibition Sense of Place which paired her with the New Zealand painter Colin McCahon.
Curated by Gregory O’Brien in association with Paula Savage, this major City Gallery Wellington survey exhibition presents work from throughout Gascoigne’s career to New Zealand audiences. Her unique art was originally forged through a passion for the Japanese art of flower arranging. She then embraced everyday materials of all kinds including road signs and soft drink crates—materials scavenged from ditches and dumps—cutting them up and assembling them to create unique, striking work.
The first major showing of Rosalie Gascoigne’s work in a New Zealand art gallery, City Gallery Wellington’s exhibition is accompanied by a significant bibliographical display including photographs, exhibition catalogues and documentation of her life in New Zealand and Australia.
Public Programmes
Floor talk: Land of Faded Things
Presented by Greg O'Brien & Bryony McLennan
Lecture: Unfinishing—Rosie Gascoigne: The Prepared Piano and the Persistence of Vision
Presented by Bryony McLennan
Lecture: McCahon & Gascoigne—Sublimity and Belonging
Presented by Ian Wedde