Biography

Senior Curator, Mackelvie Collection, International Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Mary Kisler earned her Master’s degree in Art History and Italian at the University of Auckland in 1994. Her topic was Images of Birth in Italian Renaissance Art. In 1996 she commenced a PhD at the University on Dis/Ordered Femininity in Italian Renaissance Art (uncompleted). Since 1998 she has been a curator at the gallery, caring for a collection that spans from c1150 to 1950, a large part of which is European art but which also includes a small collection of Indian miniatures and Japanese ukiyo-e prints.

Project Summary

Mary’s book Angels & Aristocrats: Early European Art in New Zealand Public Collections (Random House, 2010) included holdings of Italian Renaissance and Baroque artworks. Her project is to acquire information on lesser known artists not available in New Zealand libraries, and to work on the attribution and provenance of paintings in public collections.