The critic's part : Wystan Curnow art writings 1971-2013 / edited by Christina Barton and Robert Leonard with Thomasin Sleigh.

"Encompasses texts written over more than forty years for very different contexts, occasions, and audiences"--Foreword.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Curnow's leverage / Robert Leonard -- Notes on method / Christina Barton -- The New Zealand young contemporaries -- Morris Louis at the Auckland City Art Gallery -- High culture in a small province -- Bruce Barber: Mt Eden Crator performance -- Billy Apple in New Zealand -- Project programme 1975 -- Thinking about Colin McCahon and Barnett Newman -- Art places -- Climbing Rangitoto descending the Guggenheim -- Report: the given as an art-political statement: nine works by Billy Apple, 1979-80 -- Postmodernism in poetry and the visual arts -- Peter Roche - Linda Buis: a gathering concerning three performances -- Seven painters - the Eighties: the politics of abstraction -- Identikit portrait of an expressive realist -- I will need words: Colin McCahon's word and number paintings -- Bruce Barber's 'Vital Speeches' -- ANZART as Is -- Working with Billy Apple -- 'Te Maori' and the politics of taonga -- Julia Morison: Ten by Ten by Ten -- Colin McCahon: the Shining Cuckoo -- Billy Apple: As Good As Gold -- Gordon Walters and Jacqueline Fraser: Modernism and Maori art -- From Scratch: 273 Moons -- East of Champions -- Sewing up the space between -- Imants Tillers and the Book of Power -- Mapping and the expanded field of contemporary art -- Lye and Abstract Expressionism -- Stephen Bambury -- Colin McCahon: Muriwai to Parihaka -- Writing and the Post-Object -- Max Gimblett: an exhilaration of the spirit -- About et al.'s 'Abnormal Mass Delusions?' -- The seventies: have they reached their use-by date? -- Tom Kreisler's invitation to dance -- We'll take Manhattan: repatriating Len Lye -- High culture in a small province: further thoughts 1998-2013 -- Chronology / Thomasin Sleigh -- Art writings / Thomasin Sleigh -- Curated exhibitions / Thomasin Sleigh.

"Wystan Curnow is New Zealand's longest-serving and, arguably, most important art critic. This edited collection brings together a selection of his art writings from 1971 to 2013 to provide the first comprehensive overview of his practice. Selectively drawing on his considerable ouput, the publication features Curnow's long form essays that investigate the stakes for 'high culture' in a 'small province' like New Zealand; major essays on key artists including Len Lye, Colin McCahon, Billy Apple, Stephen Bambury, Max Gimblett, and Imants Tillers; vivid reports on the contemporary art scene; catalogue essays and short reviews that offer insightful readings of art and artists in all their material and conceptual specificity. Both a map of contemporary theory and practice and a cogent agenda for thinking through the implications and challenges of making art here, this compilation is an essential companion for anyone interested in New Zealand art as it has unfolded since 1970."--Publisher's website.