Letter

An Introduction to New Zealand Painting

Recently, in Art New Zealand and elsewhere, direct and indirect references have been made to An Introduction to New Zealand Painting 1839-1967 and the revised edition of the same title by Brown and Keith which extends the subject of the book to 1980. Almost every commentator has treated the text as though it were technically the product of joint authorship where the work of one author is indistinguishable from the other. This is not so.

I am sure Hamish Keith must at times be aware of the blanket nature of the comments applied to the book where the passage or idea under critical attack comes from a section of the text for which I am solely responsible; conversely, the same applies to critical comments related to Hamish Keith's contribution to the text. As much as both our names are rightly linked to the title of our book, other than the Preface and Introduction, the text of the book is not a compilation resulting from joint authorship. As stated on page 7 in both editions, each chapter is the responsibilty of one or other of the two authors. Likewise, the Note on page 11 of the revised edition should clarify some of the erroneous comments that have been made.

GORDON H. BROWN