This lecture traverses a history of New Zealand art from 1969 to the present, focusing on specific works by a range of artists to argue a case for the discipline of art history as a valuable tool not only to read works of art but to understand the nature of our contemporary era. Drawing on her double life as an academic art historian and a working curator, Christina Barton touches on her many encounters with art and artists to map a different route through her times. Part polemic, part love song, her lecture models a critical and a personal way of thinking with and against the grain of established approaches to her topic.
Christina Barton is director of the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi at Victoria University of Wellington, where she has been integral to the teaching of Art History since her appointment to the programme in 1995.
