Publications about MacDiarmid and his paintings

Colours of a Life – the life and times of Douglas MacDiarmid by Anna Cahill (2018)

A biography of the life and times of Douglas MacDiarmid over the past 10 decades, from his childhood in rural New Zealand in the 1920s, through his long and colourful painting career in France. The art, relationships, travel, and philosophies of a truly charismatic expatriate New Zealand painter.

Written by award-winning former journalist and MacDiarmid’s niece Anna Cahill.

 Visit our shop to buy a copy of Colours of a Life.

MacDiarmid by Dr Nelly Finet (2002)

An illustrated art book featuring 80 of Douglas MacDiarmid’s finest works from a career spanning more than 60 years, by French art historian Dr Nelly Finet. Published in both English and French to coincide with exhibitions in New Zealand and France for his 80th birthday.

Featuring Douglas’ iconic acrylic landscape of his childhood hometown of Taihape (1991) on the dust jacket, this hard copy edition is long out of print. However, while in Paris researching for the biography, Anna Cahill discovered a sealed box of these books in the basement of Douglas’ apartment.

Visit our shop to buy a copy of MacDiarmid.

MacA Stranger Everywhere by Eric Grinda (2006)

This film presents the clear vision of the artist Douglas MacDiarmid, whose choices and event places him at the right distance from any subject. He looks at key issues of life, accompanied by some of his work. Read more>>

Starring: Douglas MacDiarmid

Runtime: 52 minutes

Bloomsbury South: The Arts in Christchurch 1933 – 1953 by Peter Simpson (2017)

For two decades in Christchurch, New Zealand, a cast of extraordinary men and women remade the arts. Variously between 1933 and 1953, Christchurch was the home of Angus and Bensemann and McCahon, Curnow and Glover and Baxter, the Group, the Caxton Press and the Little Theatre, Landfall and Tomorrow, Ngaio Marsh, Douglas Lilburn and Douglas MacDiarmid. It was a city in which painters lived with writers, writers promoted musicians, in which the arts and artists from different forms were deeply intertwined. And it was a city where artists developed a powerful synthesis of European modernist influences and an assertive New Zealand nationalism that gave mid-century New Zealand cultural life its particular shape.

Available from Fishpond NZ

Back and Beyond: New Zealand Painting for the Young and Curious by Gregory O’Brien (2008)

Since Māori first drew moa and mythical birds on cave walls, artists in Aotearoa New Zealand have provided an imaginative, lively account of the lives locals have been leading, the dreams they’ve been dreaming and the stories they’ve been telling. Alongside works painted during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Back and Beyond features art by contemporary painters and printmakers, all of them seasoned travellers across time and space, including Douglas MacDiarmid.

Winner of New Zealand Post Children’s Book Award: Non-Fiction Award 2009; shortlisted for Storylines Notable New Zealand Books: Non Fiction 2009 and LIANZA Children’s Book Awards: Elsie Locke Award 2009.

Available from Fishpond NZ

Letters to Lilburn - Douglas MacDiarmid's letters from the heart by Anna Cahill (2022)

'Dear Douglas. The heart, a bucket, will be emptied: and you are ocean enough to contain a little of me ....'

Letter to Lilburn is the compilation of an extraordinary correspondence over six decades. The intriguing selection of letter extracts and poems written by acclaimed expatriate painter Douglas MacDiarmid to his friend and first great love, composer Douglas Lilburn, was compiled by biographer Anna Cahill and published as a limited edition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth in Taihape on 14 November 1922 and honour this remarkable creative bond. This beautifully finished hardcover book has 222 pages.

Available from www.douglasmacdiarmid.com