Fine Art Auction Part I Saturday, 14 November 2026 / 11:00 am start

Doris Lusk - Untitled (Still Life w Lemons & Wine Bottle), Watercolour & Gouache on Linen, 1968

Lot Details

Doris Lusk (1916 - 1990) Untitled (Still Life w Lemons & Wine Bottle) (1968) Watercolour & Gouache on Linen Signed & dated '68 bottom right 600 x 800mm Provenance: Private collection, Christchurch Condition: Good Dunedin-born Lusk trained at the Dunedin School of Art under T.D. Charlton Edgar and R.N. Field. From Charlton she gained her technical knowledge of landscape painting; Field introduced her to pottery – she was an accomplished potter as well as a painter – and exposed her to British contemporary art theory and practice. Her first solo exhibition in Dunedin was well received. After marriage she moved to Christchurch. Russell Clarke taught her life drawing and, 3 children later, in 1943, she first exhibited with The Group. For the next 2 decades she sold consistently, and to much critical acclaim, through regular Group exhibitions. Reproductions of her work appeared in the groundbreaking journal Landfall, a critical review of cultural life in New Zealand. Her 1966 retrospective at Dunedin Public Art Gallery was well received – over half the paintings were on loan from public institutions – notably her most well-known work, the strident Pumping Station 1958 (Auckland City Art Gallery), an almost cubist abstraction of a proud building sitting confidently in the vast, awe-inspiring South Island landscape. She taught at the University of Canterbury from 1966, inspiring a new generation of artists including Philip Trusttum and Tony Fomison. Still Life 1968 is a straightforward yet bold work: a jug of flowers, a fruit-filled skillet, an open bottle of wine, rendered in pastel with deft, confident strokes and clear, shining colour – simple, pleasurable things of everyday life on a sunlit table.