The Group (New Zealand art)

Among these are Colin McCahon, Doris Lusk, Toss Woollaston, Rita Angus, Olivia Spencer Bower, Leo Bensemann, Rata Lovell-Smith, Philip Trusttum, Quentin Macfarlane and Douglas MacDiarmid.

[1] The influence of The Group extended into other areas of New Zealand culture through the collaborations and friendship of members such as the likes of writer and editor Charles Brasch and composer Douglas Lilburn.

[4] They were Margaret Anderson (later Frankel), Viola Macmillan Brown, Cora Wilding, Evelyn Polson (later Page), Edith Wall, Ngaio Marsh, William H. Montgomery, and Billy Baverstock.

The Group continuously organised independent shows until it temporarily terminated its exhibition in 1933 or 1934 after the formation of the New Zealand Society of Artists (NZSA).

The Group later on organised its largest-ever exhibition in 1935 with the contribution of fourteen artists, including Rata Lovell-Smith and Louise Henderson, two major contributors to the Canterbury landscape painting style.

Though the operation was unconventional during its time, members of The Group respected their traditional and conservative education they received in art school.

[8] The shared house of Bensemann, Rita Angus, and Lawrence Baigent was the informal headquarters and regular meeting spot of The Group.

Bensemann style focused on portraitures and graphic media, distinguishing himself from most The Group’s artists whose predominated subject is landscape.

[6] Throughout its operating period, The Group had organised its annual exhibition at the Durham Street Gallery, except for in 1933 and 1934 due to its temporary fall-out caused by the formation of NZSA.