Quarry, Mount Wellington

David Barker achieved early success in the Kelliher Art Competition. In 1960, at the age of 19, he won Second Prize. The following year, he won the newly created Special Prize for the best entrant under 21. This painting is a relatively rare example of an industrial landscape by the artist. Peter Shaw has observed that ‘the plundered landscape is given dramatic treatment both in terms of light and paint applied to maximise contrasts’.[1]

[1] Peter Shaw, Rainbow Over Mount Eden: Images of Auckland (Tāmaki Makaurau: Godwit, 2002), 108.