17 Facts About Rita Angus

Henrietta Catherine Angus, known as Rita Cook early in her career, was a New Zealand painter who, alongside Colin McCahon and Toss Woollaston, is regarded as one of the leading figures in twentieth-century New Zealand art.

Rita Angus worked primarily in oil and watercolour, and became known for her portraits and landscapes.

Henrietta "Rita" Angus was born Henrietta Catherine Angus on 12 March 1908 in Hastings, New Zealand.

In February 1927, Angus began studying at the Canterbury College School of Art.

Rita Angus never completed her diploma in fine arts but continued to study until 1933, including classes at the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland.

Rita Angus married Alfred Cook, a fellow artist and brother of James, on 13 June 1930, but they separated in 1934, and divorced in 1939.

Angus signed many of her paintings as Rita Cook between 1930 and 1946, but after she discovered in 1941 that Alfred Cook had remarried, she changed her surname by deed poll to McKenzie, her paternal grandmother's surname.

Rita Angus was influenced by the English painter Christopher Perkins' 1931 painting of Mount Taranaki, a response to New Zealand's distinctive clear lighting.

Rita Angus's landscapes came in a time when many people were concerned to create a distinctly New Zealand style, but Angus herself was not interested in defining a national style so much as her own style.

Rita Angus produced comic art, signed with the name Rita Cook.

In 1955 Rita Angus moved to Wellington and from this time her landscapes focused on Wellington and the Hawke's Bay which she visited regularly.

Rita Angus painted a large number of portraits, including "Head of a Maori Boy" and "Portrait ".

Rita Angus was able to capture the personality of her subjects, moving beyond a mere representation of their form.

Rita Angus painted 55 self-portraits, particularly during her later years when she became afflicted with increasingly serious bouts of narcissistic disorder.

Rita Angus visited Scotland and Europe and studied modern and traditional European art.

Rita Angus devoted much of 1960 to the painting of a mural at Napier Girls' High School which can now be seen at the front of the school hall.

Four of Rita Angus's paintings were featured on a set of postange stamps issued by New Zealand Post in 1983 to mark the 75th anniversary of the artist's birth.