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Overview
In the 1930s, Rata Lovell-Smith painted the Canterbury landscape with vivid, exaggerated blocks of colour, reducing the scene to simplified forms.
These distinctive landscapes were both celebrated and criticised for their ‘poster-like’ appearance. Some critics saw her approach as too ‘decorative’ or commercial, a travesty of modern art. Others welcomed it as a liberation from grandiose, romantic New Zealand landscape paintings.
Either way, the crisp lines and strong visual impact of Lovell-Smith’s controversial paintings helped push New Zealand art towards more modern uses of form and colour.