Julie King ‘lived her entire life for art’
Julie King regarded every detail of the lives she wrote about as important but regarded her own as modest and private. She was one of the first academics to lecture on the history of New Zealand art and wrote biographies on celebrated Kiwi artists including Cantabrians Sydney Thompson, Margaret Stoddart and Olivia Spencer Bower.
She championed female artists, specialising in pieces from the 19th and early20th century. She was never afraid of doing the hard slog, poring through archives and workbooks, researching and writing.
King, a stalwart of the Christchurch Art Gallery (CAG) and a tireless supporter of the Friends of the CAG, of which she was the first honorary life member, died in Christchurch on December 2 aged 73 .
Julie Rose King was born to Barbara and Jack Burnley in Yorkshire, England, in 1945. While she was a teenager, her family spent many hours travelling around Europe visiting museums, galleries and historic sites, giving her an early appreciation for the arts.
She studied art history at the University of Manchester, taught in London, then in 1975 took a position in the newly-established art history department at the University of Canterbury. Her partner, Jenny May, said art was her ‘‘entire life’’.
‘‘Her life interest in the visual arts was so strong that it always controlled our travel. There were places I often suggested we visit but her response would be ‘what would we do, there isn’t a gallery there’.’’
An intensely private person, King had a ‘‘determined debating streak’’, especially when it came to discussions on politics, religion, animal rights and interpretations of historical events, May said. Acting as a mother and grandmother to May’s three children and grandchildren, as well as keeping a strong connection to her English family, was a role she graciously filled.
King keenly supported the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and the Woolston Brass Band, perhaps a nod to her Yorkshire roots, May said.
Canterbury University’s former head of art history, John Simpson, said King never told students what to think, instead encouraging them to think critically for themselves.
The university purchased works for display over the years, but to ‘‘say the whole thing was wildly chaotic would be an understatement’’, he said. King took charge, producing a catalogue, acquiring more works and organising a ‘‘hanging committee’’ and support group.
‘‘[But] it was with students that her qualities really shone; her kindness, her calm, her discernment and sensitivity made her a superb teacher.’’
Former student Robyn Burgess said King was an incredible story teller, always looking into an artist’s life experiences and opening students’ eyes to the social conditions of the time and what might have led people to paint like they had and create what they did.
‘‘She would say, ‘do you see, what do you think?’, giving us permission and encouragement to enquire for ourselves.’’
King had a special interest in female artists, especially those who were lesser known, and her research resulted in several exhibitions that toured the country. Her cocuration of the exhibition Flowers into Landscape on Margaret Stoddart’s nature paintings, the first major showing of her work since 1935, was an example of her impeccable, rock-solid research, gallery curator and former student Felicity Milburn said.
Other major endeavours were also widely praised, including curated shows on Sydney Thompson and Olivia Spencer Bower, and artists such as Frances Hodgkins, Raymond McIntyre and Rose Zeller, whose life and legacy she explored.
‘‘She wasn’t tight-fisted about her research, and whenever she heard I was developing an exhibition on an artist she was eager to share what she knew, or offer ideas about possible leads,’’ Milburn said.
Former gallery director Jenny Harper said King took pains to learn the names of all staff, and was unfailingly kind and courteous. She was the epitome of gentleness and generosity
and ‘‘committed to shining light on others’’, she said. She was a woman with a mission and ‘‘a detective in hot pursuit of history’s crimes of exclusion and oversight’’, making the ‘‘invisible visible’’, head curator Lara Strongman said.
King’s research work and career would inspire and assist historians for years to come but her lasting legacy would be her gentle nature, self-deprecating humour and sudden huge laugh that welled up out of nowhere, Strongman said.
‘‘It was with students that her qualities really shone; her kindness, her calm, her discernment and sensitivity made her a superb teacher.’’ Canterbury University former head of art history John Simpson