Book Review: Marcus King, the artist who sold New Zealand

Marcus King
by Peter Alsop and Warren Feeney
Potton and Burton
RRP $79.99

Marcus King is the artist few have heard of but his artwork has played a greater part in the cultural development of the country than many other artists.

He created art for various government departments from 1920 to 1970 and his paintings and murals were exhibited to a global audience in the millions. The New Zealand pavilion at the New York Fair of 1940 was visited by 8 million people and many other of the international venues also attracted audiences in the millions.

He was the great PR man whose work in promoting New Zealand both at home and overseas saw him develop an individual style, which was commented on in the international press

In his murals and paintings, King captured the New Zealand landscape in a refined Impressionist style, branding the country as an alluring tourism utopia and productive agricultural and industrial paradise.

King’s vision was fresh, expansive and aspirational; a grand outlook grandly delivered, whether in bold Impressionist paintings or his arresting documentary and landscape murals, including “The Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi,” one of New Zealand’s most recognisable and reproduced paintings. Driven by his relentless love of painting, King was a pioneer advocate for professionalising and popularising New Zealand art, and he undoubtedly shaped the country’s identity at a formative time.

King was acknowledged at the time both for his work as a commercial designer and painter with articles praising his work at international exhibitions as well as his paintings of New Zealand landscapes, which he exhibited at various art society exhibitions.

The book itself is beautifully produced with dozens of both King's publicity images and his oils and watercolours. Some of the illustrations are given a double page spread giving panoramas of 590cm x 240cm.

The introductions by Dick Frizzell, and Douglas Lloyd Jenkins as well as a personal account of working with King by Alan Collins provide concise overviews of the artist's life while the more in-depth chapters written by Peter Alsop and Warren Feeney give a comprehensive account of the work as well as the development of the work of the NZ Tourism Board in promoting domestic and international tourism.

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