Hand painted exhibition poster for Aquarelles (1952) by Douglas MacDiarmid (watercolour on paper).

Before the days of mass production and rapid colour copying, art exhibition posters were hand-drawn and held a value of their own as collector’s pieces.

Douglas painted about 50 posters to promote his first one-man exhibition in Paris, at Morihien Gallerie, by the Jardins du Palais-Royal, in March 1952 using elements from the watercolour paintings on show.

‘Aquarelles’ is the French word for watercolours.

The exhibition was well-received with a critic for ‘Beaux Arts’ praising the work, on 2 April 1952. “New Zealand may very well be proud of her ambassador in the field of art, MacDiarmid, who is certainly the sole representative in the Ecole de Paris of one of the most distant islands in the world. MacDiarmid, gifted with a keen sense of colour which he uses in his water-colour work, with a completely individual technique. His use of colour brings before us faithfully the feeling of landscape and with a few graphic touches he gives an exact local atmosphere and setting to his pictures. MacDiarmid’s work is already extremely individual in its expression and he is rapidly advancing towards a clear mastery of his art.”

This glowing review was reported in New Zealand newspapers at the time, including The Dominion in Wellington.