Exhibition: Anne McCahon (née Hamblett)
Media Release
Image: Anne Hamblett, Poppies, (1937), oil on board,
456 x 452mm Hocken Pictorial Collections
Visitors to McCahon House often want to know more about Anne McCahon. To meet the demand for this constant interest,
McCahon House embarked on a journey of discovery with curator Linda Tyler, researcher Jessica Douglas and Andrew
Clifford and his team at Te Uru.
The team worked closely with family members – whose enormous support has made the exhibition rich in content. In
particular daughter of Anne and Colin McCahon - Victoria Carr, as consultant curator, has contributed precious ephemera,
her mother’s documents and art works and penned personal memories for the exhibition catalogue.
The research journey went to the four corners of NZ to source over 52 exhibits. Featuring over 2-dozen paintings
produced by Anne McCahon (née Hamblett) before her children were born, and many works following becoming a mother
including sketches of her children, illustrations for the NZ School Journal and a range of her ceramics selected by her
grandson Finn McCahon-Jones, the exhibition captures the spirit of a lively and courageous artist during a time when
artists, both men and women, of New Zealand were pushing boundaries of identity and place.
The exhibition, presented at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery in association McCahon House and with support from
the University of Auckland, Centre for Art Studies, coincides with and celebrates the tenth anniversary of the McCahon
House Museum and Artists' Residency and the 30th Anniversary of Lopdell House Gallery.
A Table of One’s Own: The Creative Life of Anne McCahon
19 November 2016 – 12 February 2017
Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery
Trained in the 1930’s, Anne McCahon (nee Hamblett – 1915-1993) emerged as part of a lively South Island art scene, often
venturing into the countryside on painting trips with fellow artists Doris Lusk, Toss and Edith Woollaston, and her
soon-to-be husband, Colin.
Anne was a significant presence in what is now known as McCahon House, where the family lived from 1953-59, running the
household, hosting guests and supplementing the family income through illustration work. The exhibition title comes from
a story her children would tell, in which they recall arriving home to find their mother packing away illustration
materials from the all purpose family table.