Bloomsbury South: The Arts in Christchurch 1933-1953

For two decades in Christchurch, New Zealand, a cast of extraordinary men and women remade the arts. In this book, Simpson tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of this ‘Bloomsbury South’ and the arts and artists that made it. Simpson brings to life the individual talents and their passions, but he also takes us inside the scenes that they created together: Bethell and her visiting coterie of younger poets; Glover and Bensemann’s exacting typography at the Caxton Press; the yearly exhibitions and aesthetic clashes of the Group; McCahon and Baxter’s developing friendship; the effects of Brasch’s patronage; Marsh’s Shakespearian re-creations at the Little Theatre. Simpson recreates a Christchurch we have lost, where a group of artists collaborated to create a distinctively New Zealand art which spoke to the condition of their country as it emerged into the modern era.

Review: If you could physically sense an author s passion and thoroughness, Peter Simpson s books would glow like fresh bread. His timely and lavishly illustrated Fantastica: The World of Leo Bensemann positively radiates, and yet again shows Auckland University Press to be New Zealand s pre-eminent art book publisher. Andrew Paul Wood, Landfall Online\”

Format: Hardback
Pages: 376
Imprint: Auckland University Press
Publication date: 18/07/2016