Page 217 - Constructing Craft
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although not a speciality shop, the Helen Hitchings Gallery, which all opened during
this time.
A number of these shops and galleries were started by Europeans immigrants,
often refugees, and were selling work by well-known craftspeople from overseas,
such as the English studio potter Lucie Rie. The shop owners and other refugees,
such as Ernst Plischke, an architect who supplied furniture he designed but made
by other craftsmen to the Helen Hitchings’ gallery, formed a small enclave of
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Europeans who shared an interest in the arts, and in particular, Modernism. Wilf
Wright, the owner of ‘Stockton’s’, also sensed that the Europeans added to the
cultural capital of the New Zealanders they came into contact with. He stated that
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the immigrants ‘enriched our lives and our culture to a tremendous extent.’
Lucie Rie, c. 1955. Rie was inspired by the European Modernist
movement. Her work does not show the influences of
Anglo/Oriental design that most New Zealand potters would have
been familiar with at this time. Photo: The Blumhardt Foundation.
Photo: The New Dowse.
Constructing Craft
