Artwork Information

Described by a contemporary critic as having 'an important presence', this quiet, dignified work was included in a 1959 exhibition at the Gallery - Three Auckland Sculptors - which was hailed as a new flowering in New Zealand sculpture. Three women sculptors, Macalister, Ann Severs and Alison Duff, had been working together and experimenting with cast and moulded concrete, an inexpensive, durable, modern and readily available medium. Always a passionate advocate for sculpture, a minor activity in New Zealand art until the 1960s, Macalister was a founding member of the New Zealand Society of Sculptors, Painters and Associates and a prime mover in the mounting of an international sculpture symposium in Auckland in 1971. Composure, stillness and peace are the hallmarks of her figure sculptures and she made both small meditative works and large monumental sculptures throughout her career. A major achievement is the Māori Figure, 1964, which stands at the lower end of Auckland's Queen Street. Macalister was a highly-respected artist and when she died numerous tributes were published. Colin McCahon wrote: 'Let us sing for Molly with the sculptured head - a head bearer for the many heads she made for the Queen Street [Māori figure]: beautiful heads and perhaps she never really knew what it was that she had created. Few artists if any ever know this'. (from The Guide, 2001)