Mary McIntyre

Drawing early influence from the style and composition of Northern Italian and Renaissance art, Mary has established herself as one of New Zealand’s foremost realist figurative painters.


Mary McIntyre started her artistic career under the guidance of Colin McCahon in the late 1960s. Drawing early influence from the style and composition of Northern Italian and Renaissance art, Mary has established herself as one of New Zealand's foremost realist figurative painters. Her landscape works celebrate the wonderful sculptural qualities of New Zealand's topography, particularly the volcanoes of Auckland.

Her portraiture also features the familiar. Portraits of herself, as well as prominent New Zealanders, artists and family members, depict her unique social commentaries laced with a somewhat insidious humour. Mary's ambiguous, often surreal, narratives defy political correctness and usually contain barbed humour or shafts of discomfort.

Mary's has work in numerous public and private collections including the collections of Te Papa Tongarewa, Waikato Museum of Art and History, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, James Wallace Arts Trust, and the National Museum of Australia.


 


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Episode #48: Mary McIntyre