Among other works, he is author of Colonial Constructs: European Images of Maori 1840- 1914 (1992), Marti Friedlander (2009), Strangers Arrive: Emigré s and the Arts in New Zealand, 1930- 1980 (2017) and Marti Friedlander: Portraits of the Artists (2020), all published by Auckland University Press. He taught for some years in the art history department of the University of Auckland before becoming an independent art curator and writer. His books include Frames on the Land: Early Landscape Painting in New Zealand (Collins, 1983), The Space Between: Pakeha Use of Maori Motifs in Modernist New Zealand Art (Workshop Press, 1994), Stories We Tell Ourselves: The Paintings of Richard Killeen (Auckland Art Gallery and David Bateman, 1999), Walters: En Abyme (Gus Fisher Gallery, 2004) and The Invention of New Zealand: Art & National Identity, 1930- 1970 (Auckland University Press, 2009).