One of Avis Higgs' watercolour and ink works, Andermatt, Switzerland, 1951
Press release - 6 March 2006
Art Deco textile designer honoured
Wellington artist Avis Beere, 87, has been awarded the Governor-General Art Award 2006 as part of the Festival
Exhibition at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. Mrs Beere, who paints under her maiden name, Higgs, is listed on an
Australian Government website as one of four "key historical figures" in Australian design. She was head designer for
Silk and Textile Printers in Sydney, a company known for its innovative Art Deco designs, in the 1940s. She later sailed
to England where she worked as a textile designer in London and Manchester but was seriously injured in a fatal road
accident on the outskirts of Rome in 1951.
After a long recuperation, she returned to New Zealand and took up painting. Avis's father, Sydney Higgs, was a
respected patent attorney in Wellington and an accomplished watercolourist in his spare time. Both Avis and her father
served on the council of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. Avis was married to architect Jock Beere whose sister,
Valerie Beere, was a well-known portrait painter. The Avis Higgs retrospective is on at the Academy Galleries, 1 Queens
Wharf until Sunday, March 19.
ENDS