Kōrero: Crafts and applied arts

Textile designer May Smith was one of the early proponents of a modernist aesthetic in New Zealand crafts. She was born in India in 1907 and immigrated to New Zealand with her family in 1921. She attended the Elam School of Art in Auckland from 1924 to 1928 and then moved to London to further her studies, where she was exposed to emerging modernism. Smith came back to New Zealand in 1939 and worked as a professional textile designer. This block print on linen dates from the 1950s.