Artwork by award-winning children’s author acquired by Te Papa

Thursday, 13 March 2025

New Zealand’s national museum Te Papa will be the permanent home for over 900 artworks by one of our leading children’s book illustrators and authors.

Hundreds of artworks by one of New Zealand’s best loved children’s illustrators and authors are being given a new home at Aotearoa’s national museum.

Experts from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa have been preparing Gavin Bishop’s drawings, paintings and other items at his Christchurch home for transportation to Wellington, after acquiring the catalogue for $450,000.

The collection - which will leave Ōtautahi soon - will be catalogued and made available online, after the museum decided the body of work was of national significance.

Gavin Bishop at his home in Cashmere, Christchurch. Te Papa is soon to acquire an archive of his work that will include illustrations for his books, working drawings, and charmingly, his childhood teddy.

Bishop’s prolific output includes both traditional and original stories, covering a wide range of topics from New Zealand history for older readers to children’s stories and Māori myths and legends.

At 79, the writer and artist - who has illustrated books by Margaret Mahy and Joy Cowley and won multiple awards for his work over more than 40 years - was concerned about the future of his extensive trove of drawings and paintingsstored at his Cashmere house.

“I became anxious about what the hell I was going to do with all this artwork and kept thinking there must be some way I can find a home for it,” he said.

Experts at Te Papa say acquiring Gavin Bishop’s working drawings will give an ongoing insight into the art of traditional children’s book illustrating.

Te Papa’s curator of modern art Lizzie Bisley made several trips to Christchurch to organise the acquisition, which includes all of Bishop’s finished artworks plus some of his pencil working drawings.

“One of the things we were really wanting to be able to show is his working process,” she said.

Lizzie Bisley, Curator Modern Art at Te Papa, and Gavin Bishop at his home in Cashmere.

“And that's partly to do with the fact that so much children's book illustration now is done digitally. Gavin's archive is an amazing and very full record of the process of illustrating by hand.”

Gavin Bishop’s childhood teddy bear, the inspiration behind his award-winning memory lane children’s book Teddy One-Eye, is packing his bags for Te Papa.

Over the years Bishop has used a variety of art materials for his illustrations, which include pen and ink designs with watercolour and coloured ink over the top. Once the designs are ready, they are scanned and sent off for printing, with Bishop retaining the originals.

Early sketches for books including Bishop’s story for young children, Little Rabbit and the Sea and Philip H. Bailey’s retelling of the Grimms’ fairytale, The Wedding of Mistress Fox will be heading north, together with the author’s childhood teddy bear - which was the focus of his award-winning 2014 book Teddy One-Eye.

Ted is amongst more than 900 artworks and items heading to Wellington.

“We’re very happy to be giving Gavin’s childhood ted a new home,” Bisley said.

“He’s had a long and tiring life, so we’ll be treating him very carefully and beautifully, putting him in with our other teddy bears in our collection. And I think our textile conservators are quite looking forward to meeting the ted in person.”

For Bishop - who moved to Christchurch from Invercargill in the 1960s to go to art school and received the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2013 - Te Papa taking the collection was a “huge relief”.

“Normally, I wouldn’t even look at these. They’re just in drawers or in plastic envelopes - something that I keep in filing cabinets, or even in map drawers. I don’t have the time to sit down and go through stuff, I’m onto my next project.”

So will Teddy One-Eye get a postscript, now that his story is ending in Te Papa? Not from him, Bishop said.

“Maybe someone else will write that.”