Just over a week left to view controversial exhibition

There is just over a week left to view the controversial exhibition

Tranquillity Disturb’d: A contemporary look at historical New Zealand which has been making waves at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery.

The exhibition of pictures by Nigel Brown, Lisa Reihana and Gavin Hurley which focus on the impact of Captain Cook’s three visits to New Zealand in the late 18th century, will end its 11-week on May 31.

Visitors have a rare chance to hear the exhibition’s curator Richard Wolfe explain why he chose the paintings in an hour-long talk on the show at 1pm on Wednesday May 27. He says nobody has had such influence on the course of New Zealand history as Captain Cook, and the artists give very different and highly personalised interpretations of his visits.

Brown depicts the great man in unconventional poses while Hurley’s portraits feature the servant boys who sailed on Cook’s Endeavour, including Nicholas Young, the 11-year-old crewman to first sight New Zealand who gave his name to Young Nick’s Head.

Lisa Reihana, who currently has a major show on a similar theme in Auckland, says she set out to counter “slippery notions of truth and representation” in early European idealised depictions of the Pacific and its people.

New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Shed 11 on Queen’s Wharf, is open daily from 10.30-4.30. Free admittance.

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