Of This Place: Margot Philips’ Landscapes

Fleeing her birthplace, German Jewish artist Margot Philips (1902 – 1988) found refuge in Aotearoa New Zealand in 1938. Through lush Waikato farmland and parched South Island hills, Margot discovered the means to express her distinctive post-war vision: plateau jut upwards while fields ripple like water, creating an expansive land without end.

This survey exhibition includes landscapes from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Chartwell Collection, and the Fletcher Trust Collection, Tāmaki Makaurau, alongside works from Waikato Museum’s own extensive collection.

‘Of This Place’ offers a rare opportunity to see the breadth of this exceptional Waikato artist’s career, and through her works, to experience this place which she came to call home.

Image credit: Margot Philips, 'The Nearby Hill' 1975. Oil on canvas board, 658 x 748 mm. Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 1977