FAREWELL TO BARBARA ANDERSON (1926 - 2013)

From The Arts Foundation  Barbara Anderson is proof that an artist can start late and produce a substantial and original body of work. Barbara started late, but she was always a writer in waiting, and she brought to her work the lifetime experiences of a sharp and worldly observer of communities, workplaces, families and individuals. Her's is a graceful, surefooted prose that seemed fully formed at the start of her career - then kept getting better. She has a remarkable ear for dialogue, and an acute sense of how people represent themselves to themselves, and to others. Barbara has an amusing, amused and deeply humane view of human life. And her novels, with their combination of vitality, gaiety and gravity, are unique in our literature. Elizabeth Knox The Arts Foundation was sad to hear the news of Barbara Anderson's death yesterday, at aged 86.    In 2011 Barbara was awarded an Arts Foundation Icon Award - Whakamana Hiranga.  This Award honours senior New Zealand artists for their life-long achievements.  Barbara was recognised as being a leader in New Zealand Literature.  The Award is considered the Arts Foundation's highest honour and is limited to a living circle of twenty artists. The Arts Foundation extends its condolences to Barbara's family and friends