Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Barbara Anderson 1926-2013


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