Art & Design

Art at Te Papa reveals and illuminates New Zealand's vast national art collection. Reproductions of more than 400 individual artworks, personally selected by curators, are accompanied by brief essays giving expert and engaging commentary on each work. This book spans the entire collection, from the cream of its early European prints holdings to its most exciting contemporary acquisitions. Here...

Certain images, art objects and art styles have embedded themselves in the consciousness of many New Zealanders. But why and how have they become part of our visual vocabulary? Oliver Stead has had the difficult task of not only selecting 40 of these iconic works but putting them into a context of New Zealand art history.

John Reynolds is one of New Zealand's most significant and most admired contemporary artists. An Arts Laureate, his Cloud was last year a centrepiece of the Sydney Bienale, at which he was New Zealand's representative, a rare honour for a New Zealand painter. Certain Words Drawn brings together examples of his recent work and practice in a stunning book designed by Arch McDonnell of InHouse...

Picasso called Dalí "an outboard motor that's always running." Dalí thought himself a genius with a right to indulge in whatever lunacy popped into his head. Painter, sculptor, writer and film maker, Salvador Dalí (1904 - 1989) was one of the century's greatest exhibitionists and eccentrics - and was rewarded with fierce controversy wherever he went. He was one of the first to apply the...

As the "Goddess of the Automobile Age", Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980) stood at the centre of the sophisticated Paris art world of the Twenties and Thirties. Her love for beautiful women, elegant automobiles and the modern metropolis provided not only motifs for her pictures, but also influenced her artistic style. Simultaneously with her career as artist, Tamara de Lempicka pioneered a...

Peter Peryer is one of New Zealand's leading contemporary photographers. Peryer is also an innovative photographer, constantly refining his photographic practice, notably with his embrace of digital photography from 1998 and increasing interest in colour.

Rita Angus was a pioneer of modern painting during the 1930s and 1940s who went on to become one of New Zealanda??s leading 20th century artists. Today, more than 100 years after her birth, works such as Rutu (1951) Central Otago (1940) and Portrait of Betty Curnow (1941-1942) have become national icons, while Angus is perhaps New Zealand's best-loved painter. Yet the story of her life remains...

In our recent history never have there been more artists, more dealer galleries or more auction houses. Art is the new commerce, collecting the new passion. Warwick Brown published 100 New Zealand Artists and Another 100 New Zealand Artists in the early 1990s to great acclaim and now he's back with a book that taps into the vigorous art market in a canny manner. Taking 100 artists who have come...

When people think of punk they often think of outrageous fashion and iconic bands like The Ramones and the Sex Pistols. But the reality of punk stretches over three decades and numerous countries, with a history as rich and varied as it is shocking and daring. With this lavishly illustrated and authoritative A-Z guide, Brian Cogan leads readers through the fiery history of a furious, rebellious,...

Stephen Fry believes that if you can speak and read English you can write poetry. But it is no fun if you don't know where to start or have been led to believe that Anything Goes. Stephen, who has long written poems, and indeed has written long poems, for his own private pleasure, invites you to discover the incomparable delights of metre, rhyme and verse forms. Whether you want to write a...

Andy Warhol is recognized today as the most important exponent of the Pop Art movement. He overturned the traditional understanding of art and placed in its stead a concept that retracts the individuality of the artist. Warhol was a critical observer of American society, exposing his compatriots' consumerism in his paintings ("Campbell-" and "Brillo" series), as well as their...