Goldie Charles Frederick
Goldie is probably New Zealand's best-known artist. His popular fame is based largely on a spiral of record-shattering prices, together with thefts, vandalisms and forgeries, which have ensured that Goldie's paintings are identified as prime commodities on the art market. Descendants of Goldie's models have hailed the depictions of their ancestors; others have denounced the paintings as racist. On his appointment as OBE in 1935, a writer predicted of Goldie's works: 'connoisseurs will fight for them in Christie's and elsewhere, perhaps when none of the race he perpetuates deathlessly are here'.
