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News from Loans: Angels & Aristocrats at Auckland Art Gallery

7 May 2013 – 5.32pm

Still life, mid-to-late 17th century, Germany. Maker unknown, van Kessel II, Jan. Gift of Dr G.F.V. Anson, T.V. Anson, H.V. Anson and Mrs F.S. Maclean, 1943. Te Papa

Back in August 2012 I alerted you to the glorious exhibition titled Angels & Aristocrats. The exhibition, curated by Mary Kisler, celebrates the rich variety of early European art collected by New Zealand’s public art galleries since the 19th century. Te Papa is one of those institutions that lent paintings to the exhibition.

Portrait of Captain James Cook, circa 1780, England. Webber, John. Gift of the New Zealand Government, 1960. Te Papa

In August 2012 the exhibition was showing in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and it has since been on display at Te Papa in Wellington. It is now showing in the place where it was conceived; at the Auckland Art Gallery.

Portrait of a young man, 16th century. Mor van Dashorst, Anthonis. Gift of Miss Noeline Baker, 1955. Te Papa

I was in Auckland at the weekend and I took the opportunity to visit. It looks quite different to the exhibition at Te Papa but no less wonderful. And the exhibition still contains paintings from Te Papa’s collection which look splendid on the walls.

Mrs Humphrey Devereux, 1771, Boston. Copley, John Singleton. Gift of the Greenwood family, 1965. Te Papa

The exhibition ends on 10 June 2013 so there is still a little time to visit if you haven’t done so already. If you do go, look out the five paintings Te Papa lent to the exhibition.

Portrait of Mrs W. Collins, 1826. Carpenter, Margaret. Gift of John Duthie, 1912. Te Papa

By Jo Torr | Posted in Art, Borrowing and Lending, Collections Online | Also tagged angels & aristocrats, Art, Auckland Art Gallery, loans | Comments (0)

Contemporary New Zealand art on display in China

18 October 2012 – 1.12pm

Two weeks ago I was in Shanghai for the opening of the exhibition Meridian Lines: Contemporary Art from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa at the China Art Museum with artist Yuk King Tan and Wen Powles, Te Papa’s International Strategy Advisor.

The China Art Museum is the new home of the Shanghai Art Museum, which has relocated to the China Pavilion from the 2010 World Expo.

The China Art Museum in Shanghai. Photo: Hutch Wilco, Te Papa

As part of their re-opening celebrations, the China Art Museum invited several international museums to contribute exhibitions from their collections. The other museums included the British Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Victor Hugo Museum and the National Council for Culture and the Arts of Mexico.

While many of these institutions selected important historical works from their collections, we decided to present a selection of contemporary art from New Zealand. Meridian Lines includes works by Bill Hammond, Ralph Hotere, Ani O’Neill, Michael Parekowhai, John Pule, Yuk King Tan and Gordon Walters.

Here’s a glimpse at our exhibition…

From left to right, artworks by Yuk King Tan, Ralph Hotere and Gordon Walters. Photo: Hutch Wilco, Te Papa

The response to the exhibition was really quite overwhelming with a strong level of interest from both the local Chinese and other international visitors. Yuk King Tan’s work was reproduced on the second page of the English language South China Morning Post newspaper and one morning I discovered the show being featured on a Chinese television station.

Yuk King Tan’s work featured in the ‘South China Morning Post’, 2 October 2012.

The China Art Museum anticipates that approximately half a million people will visit the museum by the end of the year, when our exhibition closes.

Listen to Mary Kisler discussing the exhibition with Kim Hill on Radio New Zealand National.

Sarah Farrar

Curator of Contemporary Art

By Sarah Farrar | Posted in Art, Exhibitions, Museums, Māori, News, Pacific, Uncategorized | Also tagged Art, China, collections, Collections Online, contemporary art, New Zealand, Paintings Conservation, Te Papa | Comments (2)

Te Papa to display a selection of European art from New Zealand’s collections

15 October 2012 – 2.34pm

Angels and Aristocrats: Early European art in New Zealand public collections, an exhibition of European paintings spanning five centuries from about 1340 to 1830, opens at Te Papa on 20 October 2012. The exhibition is developed as a touring exhibition from Auckland Art Gallery

Toi o Tāmaki which comprises a selection of works from Mary Kisler’s book of the same name, published in 2010.

Divided into themes of religious art, landscape art, narrative paintings and portraiture, Angels and Aristocrats is drawn from the collections of Auckland Art Gallery, Te Papa, Christchurch Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery.

The exhibition begins with small medieval panels of saints alongside grand baroque works such as Guido Reni’s St Sebastian, through to depictions of the Roman campagna and the rich landscapes of the Netherlands, exemplified in paintings by Claude Lorraine and Aelbert Cuyp.

Guido Reni (1575–1642), Italy, Saint Sebastian, about 1617–21, oil on canvas. Gift of James Tannock Mackelvie, 1882. Mackelvie Trust Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

Genre painting focuses on all aspects of human behaviour, whether heroic and humble. In Pieter Breughel the Younger’s Village Fair, for example, (ostensibly a celebration of two village saints, St Anthony and St Hubert) rich and poor celebrate the kermesse, where feasting and drinking (and falling drunk among the chickens) allowed brief respite from everyday drudgery.

Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564–1638), Flanders, A Village Fair (Village Festival in Honour of Saint Hubert and Saint Anthony), early 1600s, oil on panel. Purchased by the Mackelvie Trust, 1961. Mackelvie Trust Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

The power of portraiture to ‘keep the memory alive’, whether through formal portraits, or the careful rendering of a loved one’s features, is strongly represented by paintings from the 17th century to the early 19th century. The illegitimate but widely admired Maria, Countess Waldegrave (Dunedin) by Sir Joshua Reynolds, sits in the company of Thomas Gainsborough’s George Lavington, Bishop of Exeter, whose grim expression suggests he certainly would not approve.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727–88), England, George Lavington, Bishop of Exeter, 1760s, oil on canvas. Purchased by the Mackelvie Trust, 1960. Mackelvie Trust Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

The core touring exhibition includes 52 paintings drawn from the collections of Auckland Art Gallery, Te Papa, Christchurch Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery. While at Te Papa Angels and Aristocrats will include 12 extra genre and classical landscape paintings, including George Dawe’s enormous Genevieve, painted in response to Coleridge’s famous romantic poem Love.

Angels and Aristocrats: Early European art in New Zealand public collections is at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa from 20 October 2012 – 27 January 2013. Visit www.tepapa.govt.nz/angels

Download a printable version (PDF, 92kB)

For further information, images and interview requests please contact:
Tina Norris
Ph : 04 381 7233 or 021 225 7538
Email: Media@tepapa.govt.nz

Angels and Aristocrats: Early European Art in New Zealand Public Collectionsis an Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki touring exhibition curated by Mary Kisler, Senior Curator, Mackelvie Collection, International Art.

By Te Papa | Posted in Art, Exhibitions, News | Also tagged Art, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Mary Kisler | Comments (0)

New exhibition of ceramics, glass and metalwork opens this Saturday

18 July 2012 – 10.42am

Te Papa shares the story of modern design through the collection of ceramics, glass and metalwork gifted by Wellingtonian Walter Cook. Featuring selected objects, the new exhibition, Walter Cook: a collector’s quest opens this Saturday on Level 6.

Flower dish, about 1906. WMF, Germany. Te Papa

Walter Cook’s first purchase initiated him into what he called ‘the addictive habit and thrill of hunting quarry in second-hand shops’. During the years between 1961 and about 1991, he built up a collection which reflects the second hand and antique market in Wellington that is now of national importance.

“The collection was put together in the days before online sales and provides a clear picture of the antique dealers’ arena specifically in Wellington during that time.” says Justine Olsen, Decorative Arts and Design Curator at Te Papa. Many of these dealerships have since closed but can still be remembered by some Wellingtonians.

Walter Cook was a passionate, well read collector who sought out objects with broad ranging international connections. Pieces in the collection, which feature in the exhibition range from the Arts and Crafts movement ceramics to German art-nouveau pewter and Scandinavian modern design.

Dish. 1883. Designed by William De Morgan, England. Te Papa

A wonderful example of the Arts and Crafts movement is a De Morgan ceramic dish from 1883, which features a striking hand-painted red design. Over the years, Walter developed quite the discerning eye and managed to find a Linthorpe Pottery jug by industrial designer, Christopher Dresser while in a junk shop in Auckland.

Walter and his wife Adriann gifted the collection to Te Papa in 1992 and this exhibition marks the 20th anniversary of the gift.

By Roxan Mathys | Posted in Art, Exhibitions, News | Also tagged ceramics, collection, Exhibitions, gift, glass, metalwork, museum, New Zealand, Te Papa, Walter Cook, Wellignton | Comments (0)

Māori cloaks in the Kahu Ora exhibition – two days to go

5 June 2012 – 4.55pm

It’s two days to go before we open our Kahu Ora Living Cloaks exhibition - and time to give you a little preview of what you will be able to see from Friday 8 June.

When an exhibition opens and all the taonga are in place, the graphics are up, and the lighting is done it’s hard to imagine all the work that’s been going on to get the exhibition installed.

Last week, at a quiet moment, they let me into the gallery to see how things were going. Here is Sam, one of our exhibition team installers, preparing the case and mount to display the unique huru kuri, dog-skin pelt, cloak which we featured in an earlier blog post.

Sam Wallis preparing the case and complex mount for the huru kuri, dog skin pelt cloak, on loan from Puke Ariki, photograph by Pamela Lovis, copyright Te Papa 2012.

The exhibition graphics are the work of graphic designer, Wol Jobson – here he watches over the install of some of the larger wall graphics.

Wol Jobson, graphic designer, supervises install of some of the exhibition graphics. Photograph by Pamela Lovis, copryight Te Papa 2012.

Wol Jobson, graphic designer, supervises install of some of the exhibition graphics. Photograph by Pamela Lovis, copyright Te Papa 2012.

And finally, before I give away too much – here are several kākahu installed in their cases but carefully covered up until later this week when the conservators will come in and remove the covers.

The whakataukī, or saying, that you can see on the wall speaks to one of the ideas key to this exhibition:

Ko te taura whiri, he whiri i te tangata
The muka (flax fibre) cord is like the cord that connects people.

Muka is the silky fibre extracted from the leaves of harakeke, or flax. After hours of skilled preparation Māori weavers use this muka to weave the kaupapa, or foundation, of a kākahu.

Kākahu in their cases, soon to be revealed in the Kahu Ora Living Cloaks exhibition. Photography by Pamela Lovis, copyright Te Papa 2012.

Kākahu in their cases, soon to be revealed in the Kahu Ora Living Cloaks exhibition. Photograph by Pamela Lovis, copyright Te Papa 2012.

So cloaks, or kākahu, are all about connections – the threads that weave us together as people, and the stories that connect people and kākahu. Come and see for yourself, in Kahu Ora Living Cloaks from this Friday 8 June.

By pamelalovis | Posted in Exhibitions, Māori | Also tagged cloaks, installation, Kahu Ora, kakahu, whakataukī | Comments (3)

Creating small worlds: Jim Allen at Te Papa

2 March 2012 – 2.50pm

One of the highlights of the updated Collecting Contemporary exhibition is the inclusion of three important works by contemporary New Zealand artist Jim Allen (born 1922).

Artist Jim Allen with his work 'Tribute to Hone Tuwhare', 1969. Photo: Michael Hall, Te Papa

The three works – Small worlds, Tribute to Hone Tuwhare, and Space plane, environment no. 1 – were originally made for an exhibition at the Barry Lett Gallery, Auckland, in June 1969. This gallery was a hotbed of activity at the time: host to experimental art projects, poetry readings, and much besides.

Jim Allen’s 1969 exhibition Small Worlds: 5 Environmental Structures transformed the entire space into an immersive installation. While there were discrete works in the show, the overall intention was to creating a total, multi-sensory experience. Visitors to the exhibition were encouraged to walk through the works – to look, touch, listen, and read.

Archival photo showing the 1969 'Small Worlds: 5 Environmental Structures' exhibition at Barry Lett Gallery, Auckland. Photo courtesy of Jim Allen.

At the end of the 1969 exhibition, the works were dismantled and the various parts were destroyed. The exhibition has since come to assume an almost legendary status in the history of contemporary art practice in New Zealand. However, it escaped wider public recognition until Jim Allen made the decision to reconstruct the works in 2010.

The reconstructed works were shown in the exhibition Small Worlds at the commercial gallery Michael Lett (no relation to Barry), and in the Points of Contact exhibition organised by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth and the Adam Art Gallery in Wellington. In 2011, Te Papa acquired the full suite of works for its collection. Collecting Contemporary is our first opportunity to put the works on public display.

Collecting Contemporary exhibition

On show now: The three works on display in the 'Collecting Contemporary' exhibition at Te Papa, March 2012. Photo: Michael Hall, Te Papa.

I could write many blogs about Jim Allen’s works (and, indeed, perhaps I will), but for now, I want to draw your attention to this video interview that Te Papa made with the artist, in which he discusses his original intention for the work.

Also worth checking out is a separate video in which Jim reads aloud the poem ‘Thine own hands have fashioned’ by New Zealand poet Hone Tuwhare (1922–2008). This poem features in Jim’s work Tribute to Hone Tuwhare. I’d like to thank the estate of Hone Tuwhare for permission to use the poem in this video.

See Jim Allen read ‘Thine own hands have fashioned’ by Hone Tuwhare

Sarah Farrar
Curator Contemporary Art

By Sarah Farrar | Posted in Art, Collecting Contemporary, Collections Online | Also tagged Art, contemporary art, New Zealand | Comments (1)

New Botany Display in Nature Space – informing you about topical conservation issues.

22 December 2011 – 1.48pm

If you’ve visited Te Papa recently, and especially if you’ve brought children, you may have noticed some changes in the Nature Space Discovery Centre. Part of this area was revamped in October to highlight the plight of wildlife affected by the RENA oil spill.

This month, I have been working with Melanie Dash, Nature Space Supervisor, along with conservation, mount making, writing, interpretation, and installation staff to present a small Botany display. This display is located opposite the RENA display in Nature Space on level 2. Melanie and I have also sought images and advice from the Department of Conservation, Ngā Manu Trust, Auckland Council, and MAF.

New Display, Nature Space Discovery Centre, Level 2, Te Papa; Photo: Antony Kusabs, Te Papa.

The display features one unusual fungus (Cordyceps robertsii) and two plant species, kauri (Agathis australis), and “flower of the underworld” (Dactylanthus taylorii). The aim with the botany items, as with the RENA display, is to foster interest in current conservation issues.

Kauri is one of New Zealand’s most notable tree species, but kauri forests in Northland, Great Barrier Island, and West Auckland are being infected by a soil borne fungus. The fungus causes disease in kauri which excrete resin from their trunks, defoliate, and often die. We can all help limit the spread of this disease by learning more about kauri dieback.

Dactylanthus is the perfect plant to highlight conservation issues in New Zealand. It’s current conservation status of ‘serious decline’ is due to habitat destruction, herbivory from possums and loss of pollinators (short-tailed bat) through predation. In other words, a combination of the main causes of biodiversity decline in New Zealand. The Department of Conservation is a good source of information on this species.

To find out more about the unusual fungus I mentioned, you’ll have to come to Te Papa.

By Antony Kusabs | Posted in Kids, Plants | Also tagged Agathis australis, collection, conservation, Cordyceps robertsii, Dactylanthus taylorii, kauri, nature space | Comments (0)

Faraway Places – new work

16 June 2011 – 5.08pm

This week Faraway Places: 19th century travel photography in Te Papa’s Ilott Gallery has had all its photographs replaced with 22 new ones. This is because nineteenth century photographs are vulnerable to damage by light, so the six-month exhibition has been divided into two halves, each with a different, though similar, selection of work. Often this simply entailed replacing like with like, sometimes even just turning a page in an album, but in one area there has also been a shift in emphasis.

In the previous hang there was a small selection of New Zealand photographs. These were included to make the point that the faraway is relative and that from the point of view of people living in Europe and the UK, New Zealand was an exotic and faraway place. Such images are now replaced with ones of people, for nineteenth century albums containing photographs of distant lands often also included images of their inhabitants – preferably dressed in exotic looking traditional costume.

Photographer unknown: Kandiyan chief, late 19th century, albumen silver print. Te Papa

The Pacific in particular was commonly represented by people rather than landscapes, usually with photographs of attractive young women adorned with flowers. Sometimes they were posed topless, though that would not have been how they dressed every day. Te Papa has a very strong collection of photographs taken by Samoa-based photographer Thomas Andrew and two of his images appear in this exhibition.

Thomas Andrew, Portrait of an unknown Samoan woman, c.1896, gelatin silver print. Gift of Alison Beckett and Robert McPherson, 1996. Te Papa.

By Athol McCredie | Posted in Exhibitions, History, Photography | Also tagged 19th century, album, exotic, Pacific, photography, travel | Comments (0)

Brian Brake: Lens on the World nominated in the 2011 New Zealand Post Book Awards

7 June 2011 – 12.00pm

Spirits are high at Te Papa Press as our publication Brian Brake: Lens on the World, was nominated in the illustrated non-fiction category of the 2011 New Zealand Post Book Awards. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at Wellington’s Town Hall on Wednesday 27 July 2011.

View the full list of 2011 finalist

Te Papa Press sends hearty congratulations to Athol McCredie, Curator Photography, who edited the book, and to the specialist writers whose contributions offer such depth.

This long-overdue critical examination and evaluation of the work of Brian Brake,New Zealand’s best-known photographer, was published in conjunction with a major retrospective exhibition celebrating Brake’s work. It brings together over 300 stunning photographic reproductions and six all-new essays.

The New Zealand Post judges are not the only ones looking twice at Brian Brake: Lens on the World:

This is a remarkable book, beautifully produced and meticulously researched to give a careful and fair portrait of the one landmark international photographer this country produced in the 20^th century, Brian Brake. Te Papa’s photography curator Athol McCredie is to be congratulated on his careful editorial work and a very good choice of contributors.

…worthy of a craftsman photographer who cared and followed through the nuts-and-bolts side of getting his work to fully express his meaning. — Max Oettli, New Zealand Books Autumn 2011

This lavishly illustrated book, accompanying a major retrospective of Brake’s work at Te Papa, is hard to put down — Artnews New Zealand December 2010

a clear-eyed and magisterial tome — HOME New Zealand January 2011

Editor’s choice. This beautiful book takes the reader around the world and home again, taking in landscapes, people and objects through the discerning of Brake and critical essays by artists, photographers and curators. — Air New Zealand Kia Ora magazine December 2010

This is a luscious-looking tome–great design and fantastic reproductions. — Andy Palmer, The Lumière Reader 30 November 2010

With its knowledgeable essays by specialist writers, Brian Brake: Lens on the World is a fine record of a fine photographer’s achievements. — Architecture New Zealandeditor John Walsh, Prodesign No. 109 November 2010

Very grunty critical analysis written in a very accessible way. It does give a wonderful pathway into the work. Terrific. — Paul Diamond, Interviewed on Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon, 9 November 2010

The New Zealand Post book awards were formerly called the Montana New Zealand book awards and Te Papa Press books have won three of the last four Montana Medal for Non-Fiction awards – the most prestigious award for non-fiction in NZ. Those lucky winners were:

2006:Pohutukawa and Rata: New Zealand’s Ironhearted Trees by Philip Simpson
2007:Eagle’s Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand by Audrey Eagle
2009:Rita Angus: An Artist’s Life by Jill Trevelyan

Other Montana-shortlisted Te Papa Press titles have included the following:
2003:Pacific Art Niu Sila by Sean Mallon and Fuli Pereira
2005:Icons Nga Taonga: From the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
2005:Toss Woollaston: A Life in Letters by Jill Trevelyan
2006:Extinct Birds of New Zealand by Alan Tennyson and Paul Martinson
2006:An Illustrated Guide to New Zealand Hebes by Alison Kellow and Michael Bayly
2010: Art at Te Papa by William McAloon

Best of luck Athol!

By Roxan Mathys | Posted in Art, Photography, Te Papa Press | Also tagged awards, books, Brian Brake, Brian Brake: Lens on the World, New Zealand, New Zealand Post, NZ, Te Papa, Te Papa Press | Comments (2)

European Masters closes this Sunday

22 February 2011 – 10.24am

Well it’s coming to that sad time when exhibitions are about to close and a lot of people are always in the habit of putting things a off to the last minute so… I thought I would help you all out with a bit of a reminder in the hope you don’t have end up saying “ahh I wanted to go to that one”.

So for all of you putting it off, European Masters: 19th–20th century art from the Städel Museum closes this Sunday 27th February!

And if you buy your ticket with your Visa Credit or debit card you could win a trip for 2 to Europe, including a guided tour of not one, but three of the best art museums in the world – The Tate Modern, London; the Stadel Museum in Frankfurt and the Musée du Louvre in Paris.

If you have been in to see the exhibition already and paid for it with your Visa Credit or Debit card but you haven’t entered the draw yet, you have until Sunday to fill in your details online.

<!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–> <!–[endif]–> <!–[endif]–> <!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–>Well it’s coming to that sad time when exhibitions are about to close and a lot of people are always in the habit of putting things a off to the last minute so….. I thought I would help you all out with a bit of a reminder and in the hope you don’t have end up saying “ahh I wanted to go to that one”.
So for all of you putting it off European Masters: 19th–20th century art from the Städel Museum closes this Sunday 27th February!

By Roxan Mathys | Posted in Art, Exhibitions | Also tagged Art, competition, european, masters, museum, städel, Te Papa, Wellington | Comments (1)

Te Papa's Blog

Tag Archives: exhibition

News from Loans: Angels & Aristocrats at Auckland Art Gallery

Contemporary New Zealand art on display in China

Te Papa to display a selection of European art from New Zealand’s collections

New exhibition of ceramics, glass and metalwork opens this Saturday

Māori cloaks in the Kahu Ora exhibition – two days to go

Creating small worlds: Jim Allen at Te Papa

New Botany Display in Nature Space – informing you about topical conservation issues.

Faraway Places – new work

Brian Brake: Lens on the World nominated in the 2011 New Zealand Post Book Awards

European Masters closes this Sunday

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