Polynesian Art To Mark Bicentenary

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31772, 31 August 1968, Page 1

Polynesian Art To Mark Bicentenary

(N.Z Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 30. A major travelling exhibition of pre-European Maori and Polynesian art is being

mounted to mark the bicentenary next year of Captain Cook’s first landing in New Zealand, the director of the Canterbury Museum (Dr R. S. Duff) told an Art Galleries and Museums’ Association seminar in Auckland. The association accepted in principle a proposal from the director of the International Council of Museums, Mr H. de Varine Bohan, that it arrange an exhibition of romantic paintings in Europe to come here in 1970. It will contain about

50 works from major museums in several European countries, and visit two Australian and two New Zealand centres.

Speakers felt that a highlevel exhibition of this nature would be the most important ever to come here. Dr Duff said that the Cook bicentenary exhibition could be sent to Europe on a reciprocal basis. PreEuropean art was the most important art New Zealand had produced. The exhibition would include work from New Zealand and Tahiti (first voyage), Tonga and Easter Island (second voyage) and the Cook Islands and Hawaii (third voyage).