27 August 2004
Toss Woollaston Exhibition Opens At Te Papa
Toss Woollaston: family and friends looks at Toss Woollaston's early years, and his key friendships and relationships
during that period. This intimate exhibition, now open at Te Papa, has been organised to coincide with the October
publication by Te Papa Press of Toss Woollaston: A Life in Letters.
Toss Woollaston (1910-98) was a leading New Zealand artist, pioneering modern painting during the 1930s and 1940s. New
Zealand poet Charles Brasch described him as 'one of the first to see and paint New Zealand as a New Zealander.'
Woollaston was also a prolific letter writer, and published two memoirs. This exhibition presents a selection of his
early works (1933-48) from the Te Papa collection, as well as letters and other archive items from the Woollaston
Archive, gifted to the Museum by the Toss Woollaston Trust in 2001.
Paintings in the exhibition include Woollaston's My father (1939), Portrait of Miss Bethell (1938), and Edith (about
1948). Books, poems, and letters associated with Woollaston are also included, as are works by his wife Edith Alexander
and his friends Flora Scales and Ursula Bethell.
Toss Woollaston: family and friends runs until February 2005 in the Ilott Room, Level 4.
ENDS