ANNA AND JOHN CASELBERG

Anna Caselberg was a major artist and the daughter of one of New Zealand’s best known painters Sir Tosswill Woollaston. “Anna’s art was firmly connected to the cultural growth of this country. She painted from the heart and shared with the best of New Zealand Art a toughness of vision and also a lyricism that transcended the hardship and discipline of painting. Anna could paint the Otago Peninsula like no one else. The truth of subject was always there and truth is always personal. Her paintings made the art of seeing miraculous. Her paintings were everyday miracles, without ostentation, with humility”. Wayne Seyb, artist and friend.

John Caselberg was Burns Fellow at Otago University in 1961. His writing included poetry, criticism, playwriting, short stories, essays. He is best known as a long time friend and collaborator with artist Colin McCahon. John provided poems to illuminate some of McCahon’s best known works including The Wake and The Second Gate Series. But John, having the privilege of intimate knowledge and understanding of his friend’s philosophy and practice, also wrote significant essays and reviews of Colin McCahon’s often misunderstood art. They were a constant sounding board for each other and McCahon’s free flowing genius was in part anchored by Caselberg’s insight.