Identifying Lindauer: His Materials and Techniques

Auckland Art Gallery has presented a series of conservation exhibitions focusing on technique and treatment, including Modern Paints Aotearoa 2014–15 and Frances Hodgkins: Forgotten Still Life 2015–16.

This new exhibition, Identifying Lindauer: His Materials and Techniques, provides insights into the artist’s practice by comparing a number of known works by Lindauer using different techniques with a forgery. Lindauer relied heavily on photography for accuracy, but examples of his work included also illustrate his considerable artistic skill. The comparison of works definitely identified as being by Lindauer with those that are less certain has been very useful in identifying the characteristics of the artist’s technique. Displaying them side by side creates an opportunity for the public to understand the differences.  To provide further comparison, examples of work by the other famous painter of Māori, Charles F Goldie, is also included, as well as information on a molecular and microscopic level. 

Identifying Lindauer: His Materials and Techniques coincides with the large survey exhibition The Māori Portraits: Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand which is a celebration of a key cultural figure in New Zealand art history comprising over 150 paintings and many photographs.