Michael King
Historian and Biographer

The role of the visual arts:

For me, the visual arts are inescapably associated with Thomas Aquinas' scholastic definition of beauty: 'id quod visum placet' that which, when perceived, pleases.

Now I know, of course, that pleasure is not the sole nor even the most worthy purpose of art, that there is a place for work which challenges, disturbs, terrifies, and generally afflicts the comforted.

But in my own life, from my own walls, I want to be pleased and pleasured, I want art that gives off and surrounds me with positivity and uplift. Hence the continuous delight I draw from the luminosity of my Joanna Paul watercolours, my little T.A. McCormacks, my Woollastons, my one Grahame Sydney ('making the far land glow'), my tiny McCahon.

I face each day with more courage and with more stamina thanks to the beauty and pleasure which these picture-friends and companions bring into my life.


Tragically, Michael King and his wife Maria Jungowska died in a car accident on March 30, 2004. City Gallery Wellington mourns the loss of this great New Zealander and friend to the arts. With special thanks to Michael's children for allowing us to publish this viewpoint.