Peter Mcintyre

Personal

Vocation

New Zealand artist, appointed his nation’s official war artist in January 1941. His work was exhibited in Europe and New Zealand, and reproduced in numerous magazines. Through exposure in the New Zealand Listener he became a household name. Peter McIntyre was the son of a lithographic artist and was educated at the University of Otago and the Slade School of Fine Art, London. He enlisted in London in 1939 with the 34th Anti-tank Battery, a New Zealand unit, and was sent as a gunner to Egypt. A Captain from 1941 he recorded the activities of 2NZEF in Crete and North Africa and at Cassino in Italy over the next five years, capturing the drama of places and events. The work from that period has an immediacy and clarity, combined with a sense of narrative. McIntyre's romantic realist style has been derided by critics, but his paintings have retained popular appeal, both his war art and his post-war New Zealand painting. His shows consistently sold out through the ‘50s and ‘60s and he produced four substantial publications. His works were always purposeful, describing the pleasures and sensations of the places for which he held particular empathy. He sought to discover the order and structure of the landscape, searching for its history and geology as well as its spirit. He died on September 11, 1995, the year a hugely successful retrospective of his war paintings was exhibited at the City Gallery in Wellington. Link to Wikipedia biography