Remembering Edith Collier

THE ARTISTS FAMILY ARE DELIGHTED HER WORK IS ON DISPLAY

- Lynley Ward

She remains one our country’s unheralded artistic talents, but more than 50 years after Edith Collier was laid to rest, her family is convinced the woman they knew as a shy spinster was a pioneer who was light years ahead of her time.

The Whanganui artist is currently being showcased at the Sarjeant Gallery, and the reception is a far cry from the hostile reaction her works received when she first exhibited in the River City after spending nearly a decade honing her craft in England and Ireland.

Relatives of Edith, who grew up with her artwork decorating their homes, say despite her remarkable gift and recognition from internationally renowned artists including Kiwi ex-pat Frances Hodgkins and Australian Margaret Macpherson, their aunt never received the homegrown acclaim she deserved.

It’s more than a century since Edith left New Zealand to study in London, immersing herself in the avant garde culture sweeping through post-war Europe and adopting modernist techniques.

She came be to revered in the small Irish village of Bonmahon for her humanitarian work clothing impoverished locals during the first World War. Her efforts were marked by the still-grateful community with a memorial unveiled in 2016. The village is also regarded as the setting for some of her finest works.

But when the unmarried eldest of 10 was summoned back to Whanganui in 1921 to help her family, the artist’s contemporary style struggled to win over provincial pundits.

Niece Helen Gordon (89) tells the Weekly the savaging from conservative art critics and torching of her nude paintings by her enraged and embarrassed father dealt a cruel blow to Edith’s confidence.