A Close Look at Artist Archives | Modern Women

Dive into the vibrant art and creative vision of modern artists May Smith and June Black with an up-close viewing and discussion of their archives. Both artists’ artworks are on display in Modern Women: Flight of Time, and in this special event, Gallery Archivist Freya Elmer will present a curated selection of archival ephemera that provides fascinating insight into their lives, artworks and processes. These archives showcase the rich history of practice and community created by women artists during the mid-20th century.

Limited spaces available, for Members only.

This talk draws from artist archives held in the E H McCormick Research Library and supports the current exhibition Modern Women: Flight of Time. The Library is located onsite at the Gallery and is home to an extensive research collection on New Zealand and international art.

 

Artist Archives

June Black (1910–2009) was a New Zealand sculptor, painter and printmaker who exhibited nationally and internationally particularly in the 1950s and 1960s. She is known for her use of clay as a sculptural medium at a time when domestic pottery was the norm in the ceramic arts. Her figurative and conceptual works reflect her extensive reading and interest in existentialism, Surrealism and the theatre of the absurd. A feminist ahead of her time, Black’s archive includes journals from across 40 years, in which she recorded quotes, ideas and personal experiences.

May Smith (1906–1988) was born in India and arrived in New Zealand with her family in 1921. She first met painter Frances Hodgkins at Ibiza in 1933 and her example persuaded Smith to take up painting. June Black’s archive consists of artwork and correspondence, photographs, sketchbooks, newspaper clippings, audiotapes, diaries, notes, colour slides and ephemera.

 

Image credits: May Smith, Untitled [Landscape], 1939. May Smith Archive, E H McCormick Research Library, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of May Smith Estate, 1991. | Unknown photographer, June Black in front of Artwork, 1963. June Black Archive, E H McCormick Research Library, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Estate of June Black, 2017. | Unknown photographer, May Smtih Painting a Mural, circa 1941. RC2002/3, May Smith Archive, E H McCormick Research Library, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of May Smith Estate, 1991.