May 05, 2015
Lindauer show opens in home town
A major exhibition of historic Maori portraits by 19th century painter Gottfried Lindauer opens today at his birthplace Pilsen in the Czech Republic.
Auckland Art Gallery’s Haerewa Maori advisory group will take part in a kawe mate ceremony at The Gallery of West Bohemia to bring the works on and to symbolically return Lindauer’s spirit to his homeland.
The 48 portraits from the Partridge Collection at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki and Te Papa drew more than 143,000 visitors to the Old National Gallery in Berlin over the past few months.
The Pilsen retrospective also includes three paintings held in the Czech Republic, 19 of Lindauer’s early works from before he left for New Zealand in 1874, and Maori items he sent back to the Naprstek Museum in Prague around 1900.
Director Roman Musil says it’s the most ambitious project his gallery has ever prepared.
Pilsen is the 2015 European Capital of Culture.
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