Dick Frizzell
Giant Double Moderne Manaia

Artwork Detail
In Māori culture, the Manaia is a spiritual guardian and carrier of supernatural powers. Usually depicted as a figure with the head of a bird, body of a man and tail of a fish, the Manaia acts as a provider and protector over sky, earth and sea.
In Dick Frizzell’s modernist-style painting the Manaia is fractured, difficult to make out. The artist frequently employs painting styles of the past. Here, he applies Cubism’s multi-perspective approach to a mythical character which, as a chimera, is an entity already made from different parts.
- Title
- Giant Double Moderne Manaia
- Artist/creator
- Production date
- 1992
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 2200 x 1600 mm
- Credit line
- Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Patrons of the Auckland Art Gallery, 1996
- Accession no
- 1995/26/1
- Copyright
- Copying restrictions apply
- Department
- New Zealand Art
- Display status
- Not on display
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