Decades of art writing on Aotearoa New Zealand’s most compelling artists. Out of the Blue gathers 37 essays devoted to artists from Aotearoa New Zealand. These are artists whom Barton – entering the art-writing fray in the 1980s, a time of widespread intellectual upheaval – has thought about, worked with and written for, from her first piece on artist and filmmaker Claudia Pond Eyley, published in 1985, to a foreword written in 2021 about sculptor Paul Cullen. They form a small but telling subset of her work, and provide readings that not only anatomise the nature of each artist’s work but also demonstrate the ideas that have been in play as art has unfolded here in Aotearoa. (Art History/Essays)