E. Mervyn Taylor cards and a book

The cards in this collection were printed in the 1950s and 60s by E. Mervyn Taylor’s Mermaid Press. Taylor, trained initially as a jewellery engraver and commercial artist, became a central cog in Wellington’s post-war art world. He worked as a printmaker, including producing wood-engravings as illustrations for the school journal and school primers. He was involved in founding The Architectural Centre - Wellington’s leading contemporary art and design gallery of the 1950s and 60s - and he was an editor and illustrator of the Design Review. He designed and made numerous murals for public buildings and war memorials.

Taylor’s Mermaid Press printed cards, books and school primers. At the heart of Taylor’s practice was an idea that contemporary art should be made accessible to as many people as possible, including children. This was achieved in part through the press, with his designs for prints (themselves a reasonably accessible, affordable art form) being reused on cards. This collection of cards all have New Zealand subjects, including depictions of Māori ātua, and native New Zealand flora and fauna. Taylor was committed to producing modern art that spoke to life in New Zealand.