Louise Henderson
1902 – 1994

Dame Louise Henderson is one of New Zealand’s most important modernist artists. Born in Paris in 1902, Henderson migrated to New Zealand in 1925. Her earliest works offered thoughtful and detailed observations of her new environment, though she soon began to develop a more exploratory approach to art making. Her work is notable for its blurring of the distinctions between abstraction and representation and for expressive use of colour.

Henderson moved to Wellington in the 1940s. There she developed an interest in modernism and began to experiment with fresh approaches image composition. In 1952, Henderson returned to Paris for a year to study under Jean Metzinger, one of the founders of the Cubist movement. During the mid and late 1950s, she spent a sustained period in the Middle East, punctuated with trips to Europe to view art galleries and museums. This was a formative time for Henderson, and she produced a substantial body of highly accomplished artwork. On return to New Zealand, she started disrupting the New Zealand art scene by working in a distinctively international, modernist style. She challenged the predominantly British, post-war narrative occurring in New Zealand art during the period, with her bold investigations of colour and form.

One of Henderson's later works is included in 'Revisiting Modernism'; End of Winter (1982). This painting demonstrates the artist’s lively and expressive approach to painting and the enduring fascination that she had with the medium.