MACFARLANE, PAMELA (1926-1999)

“Kwannon” (1958)
Original etching
14.5 x 9.5cm
signed lower right
*private collection, Sydney
 
MacFarlane was a respected New Zealand Modernist & Zoologist. She completed a Master's degree in Zoology at the University of Otago in the 1940s and also studied part-time at the Dunedin School of Art. She studied at the Brisbane School of Art in 1951-2 and 1958 she undertook training at the Art Students' League in New York. She held about 15 solo exhibitions in Dunedin, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra, and participated in many group shows. She is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, the state galleries of South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania and University collections in Brisbane and Canberra. This superb, rare mid century etching was completed in New York in 1958, and depicts 'Kwannon', the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy in Japanese folklore, a counterpart to the Chinese Kuan Yin.