Cubist Life Study
Maker
Frances Irwin Hunt
Production date
Circa 1960
Description
This painting of a nude standing before a highly abstracted landscape shows the late influence of cubist traditions, largely established by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, on the New Zealand art scene. Also influenced by John Weeks, who had been taught in the 1920’s by French cubist painter André Lhôte, Frances Hunt applied cubist sensibilities to her paintings through much of her career.
Frances Hunt (1890 – 1981) was born in Cambridge, New Zealand. Following the death of her father in 1909 Hunt was forced to take up duties on the family farm in Te Kuiti. After the First World War she and her mother moved to Auckland where Hunt took classes in the Victoria Arcade studios of painter Frank Wright. At the age of 41, Hunt began study at Elam School of Arts under the tutorage of John Weeks. He had a significant impact on her work and was to remain a mentor and friend for many years. Although Hunt maintained a consistent career as a painter, winning awards and being included in some prestigious national exhibitions, she was considered a conservative painter of the landscape tradition. When she died, unmarried at the age of 91 she left her works and extensive art collection to E. H. McCormick and his sister, Myra who sold the estate and donated the funds to the Maori Education Foundation.
Object detail
400 x 300mm (image)
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