PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Important Paintings & Contemporary Art, Art+Object, 06/08/2015

Like the British Pop artist David Hockney, Ian Scott was born in Bradford in Yorkshire. Emigrating to New Zealand in 1952 at the age of eight, he excelled at art as a youngster, becoming the youngest ever winner of the Kelliher Prize for landscape painting while still a teenager. He attended McCahon's art classes at Auckland City Art Gallery before enrolling at Elam School of Art where he and friend Richard Killeen perfected their contemporary realist style. While Killeen located his images in suburbia, Scott opted for stylised West Coast landscape backgrounds.

Two Worlds is a slightly earlier work than Five Miniskirts, showing a windswept modern nude as a half torso, situated in front of rolling green hills and kauri trees which appear like a stage set. This is the classic juxtaposition of nature and culture, showing the painter's skilful conceptual development alongside his technical accomplishment.

LINDA TYLER

Ian Scott's Girlie paintings of the late 1960s are rife with references to the works of other artists. They were produced at a time when the histories of New Zealand painting were being written and the identification of an authentic local tradition - one rooted in the landscape, the harsh New Zealand light and its clearly delineated forms - was paramount. Scott plays on this history, responding to his predecessors with wit and irony.

William McAloon, Te Papa curator (1969 - 2012)