DON BINNEY FLIGHT PATH

Author: Gregory O’Brien
400 pages

A richly illustrated account of the life and work of one of New Zealand s most iconic artists.
Painter, printmaker, teacher, writer and ornithologist, Don Binney (19402012) was a mercurial presence on the New Zealand cultural scene from the time of his meteoric rise to fame in the early 1960s. His unmistakable, stylised depictions of birds have come to define an era in the development of the nations art. Don Binney: Flight Path follows the painter from Te Henga / Bethells Beach his artistic turangawaewae through his years of wandering not only the length of Aotearoa but as far afield as Latin America and Europe.

Drawing extensively on Binneys letters, journals and other writings, award-winning author and curator Gregory OBrien takes us into the world of this gifted but paradoxical artist. Richly illustrated with Binneys paintings, drawings and prints alongside photographs and documentary materials this is the first full-length monograph on one of New Zealands most important twentieth-century artists.