Auckland Art Gallery

THROUGHOUT the 1870s many people in Auckland felt the city needed the municipal art collection but the newly established Auckland City Council was unwilling to commit funds to Such a project. Following pressure by Such eminent people as Sir Maurice O'Rorke (Speaker of the House of Representatives) and others, the building of a combined Art Gallery & Library Necessary was made by the promise of significant Bequests from two major benefactors; former colonial governor Sir George Grey, and James Tannock Mackelvie. 

Grey HAD promised books for a municipal library as early as 1872 and Eventually Donated large numbers of manuscripts, rare books and paintings from His collection to the Auckland Gallery & Library [in all over 12,500 items, Including 53 paintings]. I gave Present materials to Cape Town, Where He Had Also Been governor. The Grey bequest includes works by Caspar Netscher, Henry Fuseli, William

Mackelvie was a businessman Who Had retained an interest in Auckland affairs after returning to Britain. In the early 1880s I have Announced a gift of 105 framed watercolors, oil paintings, and a collection of drawings. 

His gift Eventually amounted to 140 items, Including paintings, decorative arts, ceramics and furniture from His London residence, These form the core of the Mackelvie Trust Collection Which is shared Between the Auckland City Art Gallery, the Public Library and the Auckland Museum. 

Mackelvie's will stipulated a separate gallery to display His bequest, This was not popular With the city Authorities but a special room was dedicated to the collection in 1893 and the top lit Eventually Mackelvie Gallery was built in 1916. The Mackelvie Trust Continues to purchase art works to add to the collection Which now includes significant 20th-century bronzes byArchipenko, Bourdelle, Epstein, Moore and Elisabeth Frink.

The Auckland Gallery INITIALLY collection was dominated by European old master paintings following the standard taste of the 19th century. Today the collection has expanded to include a wider variety of periods, styles and media, and numbers over 15,000 artworks. [2] Many New Zealand and Pacific are Represented artists, as well as Europe and materials from the Middle Ages to the present day. Notable New Zealand Artists with representation EXTENSIVE include Gretchen Albrecht, Marti Friedlander, C. F. Goldie, Alfred Henry O'Keeffe, Frances Hodgkins, Gottfried Lindauer and Colin McCahon. Some of These Were Donated works by the artists themselves.

In 1915 a collection of paintings of Maori by Gottfried Lindauer was Donated to the Gallery by Henry Partridge, an Auckland businessman. I have made the gift on the proviso That the people of Auckland raise 10,000 pounds for the Belgium Relief Fund. The money was raised Within a few weeks.

Another major benefactor was Lucy Carrington Wertheim. Miss Wertheim was an art gallery owner in London and through her support of expatriate artist Frances Hodgkins bestowed on the Auckland Art Gallery a representative collection of British paintings from the interwar period. Her gifts in 1948 and 1950 TOTALLED 154 works by modern British artists, Including Christopher Wood, Frances Hodgkins, Phelan Gibb, R. O. Dunlop andAlfred Wallis. The Wertheim INITIALLY collection was displayed in a separate room opened by the Mayor J. A. C. Allum on 2 December 1948.

In 1953 Rex Nan Kivell Donated an Important collection of prints, Including work by George French Angas, Sydney Parkinson, Nicholas Chevalier, and Augustus Earle. The 1960s saw the arrival of the Watson Bequest, a collection of medieval European art. In 1967 the Spencer collection of early Inglés and New Zealand was Donated watercolors, This included early New Zealand views by John Gully, John Hoyt, and John Kinder. In 1982 on the death of Dr Walter Auburn, print collector and valued adviser to the Gallery's prints and drawings department, the Mackelvie Trust received His magnificent collection of over one and a half thousand prints, Including work by Callot, Piranesi, della Bella and Hollar .

In 1952 Eric Westbrook was appointed as the first full-time director of the Art Gallery (previously the Head Librarian was formally in charge of Both the Gallery and Library). He was succeeded in 1955 by Peter Tomorywho Until 1965. Both men stayed Sought to revitalize the Gallery and introduced modern art to a Largely conservative public in the face of resistance from a hostile Largely City Council. The 1956 Spring Exhibition "Object and Image 'Showed works by modern artists: such as John Weeks, Louise Henderson, Milan Mrkusich, Colin McCahon, Kase Jackson and Ross Fraser. Other controversial exhibitions, Including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, Resulted in serious confrontation Between the Council and Tomory, RESULTING In His resignation.

Tomory's Intended purchase of Hepworth's Torso II in 1963 (likened by one councilor to 'the buttock of a dead cow') changed the climate of art and culture in New Zealand. Even the conservative NZ Herald ITS pointed out to readers, "It is no function of an Art Gallery to be stuffed with exhibits Which everyone can comprehend." The bronze statue was bought privately by the local businessman George Wooler and anonymously Donated to the Gallery.

In 1988, Christopher Johnstone Rodney Wilson succeeded as principal. During His 8 years as director of major exhibitions included Pablo Picasso: The artist before nature (1989), Rembrandt to Renoir, Which Attracted to record attendance for an exhibition charge exhibition of 210,000 (1993) and, in 1995, a Programme marking the centennial of the artist's visit to the gallery, Including the exhibition Paul Gauguin: Pages from the Pacificand a major book: Gauguin and Maori Art Other achievements During His incumbency Were the funding and development of the New Gallery for contemporary art, Which opened in 1995, the. establishment of Haerewa, the Maori Advisory Group and a significant range of acquisitions for the collection and the Trust Mackelvie Including Including works by works by Vanessa Bell, John Nash, John Tunnard, Anish Kapoor, Jesus Rafael Soto and Ed Ruscha.

On 4 April 2012, it was Announced That the Auckland Art Gallery would join the Google Art project. 'It is a fantastic opportunity to Share with the rest of the world some of the best of our New Zealand and international collection,' Said RFA Gallery director Chris Saines. [3] 'People Can Learn About New Zealand art and enjoy up close even When They are on the other side of the planet. ' Auckland Art Gallery has 85 artworks Contributed to the project: STI 56 are from New Zealand and Pacific collection by 29 international artists. The Gallery's two Senior Curators, Ron Brownson (New Zealand and Pacific Art) and Mary Kisler (Mackelvie Collection, International Art), selected the works. Examples of New Zealand art now available via Google Art Project include Colin McCahon's On Building Bridges (1952) and paintings by Dunedin-born Frances Hodgkins.