Roger Blackley

Roger Allan Blackley (29 July 1953 – 15 May 2019) was a New Zealand art historian, author, and curator. He was a noted authority on the work of artist C. F. Goldie.

Early life and education Blackley was born in Masterton in 1953. He studied art history at the University of Auckland, graduating Master of Arts with first-class honours. His 1978 master's thesis Writing Alfred Sharpe was a study of the painting and writing of the 19th-century landscape artist Alfred Sharpe.

Career From 1983 to 1998, Blackley was the curator of historical New Zealand art at Auckland Art Gallery, and in 1992, his MA thesis was published as the exhibition catalogue to accompany the exhibition The Art of Alfred Sharpe at that gallery.

Blackley wrote a number of books, including the bestselling Goldie (1997). In that book, he challenged the prevailing view of art historians at the time that C. F. Goldie's portraits of Māori were racist and patronising, instead arguing that Māori held Goldie and his artistic skills in high regard and that his subjects had control over how they were portrayed by Goldie.

In 1998, Blackley was appointed as a lecturer in art history at Victoria University of Wellington, and rose to the academic rank of associate professor.

Blackley died in Wellington on 15 May 2019.

Published works Published works by Blackley include: Goldie (Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 1997). Galleries of Maoriland: Artists, Collectors and the Maori World, 1880–1910 (Auckland University Press, 2018). Stray Leaves: Colonial Trompe L'Oeil Drawings (Victoria University Press, 2001). Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki: The Guide (Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in association with Scala Publishers, London, 2001). Te Mata: The Ethnological Portrait (Adam Art Gallery and Victoria University Press, 2010). The Art of Alfred Sharpe (Auckland City Art Gallery and David Bateman, 1992).