Don Binney Book

Don Binney is a well-known and popular New Zealand artist whose signature paintings of bird and landscape, in strong lines and gorgeous colours, are instantly recognisable. These confident celebratory paintings first appeared in the 1960s and brilliantly captured the mood of the times, seeming to express a distinctive New Zealand identity. As a young artist he met speedy success and critical acclaim.

Though this adulation faded, Binney's work did not stop here: increasingly interested in landscape itself, he painted islands, beaches, headlands; and later pursued collage and sign, experimenting with different media. His most recent paintings link back to those of the 1960s but show a sureness of touch and the maturity of a lifetime's preoccupation with the natural world and with space and mystery.

In this book Damian Skinner places the focus firmly on the paintings themselves, choosing 75 paintings in full colour to represent the entire range of the artist's remarkable achievement. A lively and revealing interview with Binney is preceded by an introductory essay which sets his work in the wider context of New Zealand twentieth-century art. Also including a chronology and selected bibliography this book is designed to reintroduce and to reevaluate a major artist.