Peter McLeavey: The life and times of a New Zealand art dealer

Winner of:
New Zealand Post 2014 Book of the Year, Best Non-Fiction Book

From Montana award-winning author Jill Trevelyan comes the first biography of Peter McLeavey, the charismatic, pioneering art dealer who since the 1950s has shaped—even transformed—New Zealand art. McLeavey’s personal story is remarkable but in it, his contemporaries will recognise common themes: the religious upbringing; the struggle to be bohemian in a repressive, midcentury small town; the quiet agonies of marriage and children, the need to make a mark. Through exclusive access to McLeavey’s extensive and hitherto untapped archive of letters, diaries, exhibition files and more, this book offers insights into the artists McLeavey has represented across half a century. Here, in their own words—lively, salty, and often heartbreaking—are Colin McCahon, Toss Woollaston, Len Lye, Milan Mrkusich, Michael Smither, Gordon Walters, Michael Illingworth, Don Driver, Robin White, John Reynolds, Yvonne Todd, and many, many more. Far more than a simple biography, this is the big story of contemporary New Zealand art itself, in a period of massive change and growth, and Trevelyan offers an utterly fresh and compelling historical account of the birth of the modern art market and the status of art today. A must-read for anyone interested in New Zealand’s art, culture or recent history.