As tributes flow in for
Barbara Anderson as an important New Zealand novelist, a fascinating aspect of
her life has been forgotten. Barbara was also a much admired Cubist.
In the 1990s she was one of the founding residents
of both Cubewell House and later the National Mutual Building and was around during the development and presentation of most of the exhibitions shown in those two spaces. Cubism (be there or be square).
Barbara was insanely curious, stylish and
magnificently sure that younger people had as much to offer her as she had to
offer in return. And so she did. She was admired and appreciated in equal parts
by all her fellow Cubists. With her husband Neil they were for that moment an
enlivening presence in the contemporary art world. A big loss, but big memories too.
Image: Barbara and Neil Anderson on Willis Street
just down from the Hamish McKay Gallery, 2003
