The Dunedin Public Art Gallery reveals its most beloved golden treasures this weekend in a special exhibition marking 125 years. Nigel Benson visits New Zealand's first art gallery.
The guardians of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery sit around a table in director Elizabeth Caldwell's office.
They're joking about which work they'd grab if the building was on fire.
It is a neat analogy for the gallery's 125th anniversary exhibition, "Beloved: Works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery".
"The project started in 2006, when the team here began selecting works they thought were suitable for inclusion," Ms Caldwell says.
"Everyone drew up lists and there were numerous meetings and discussions about it."
The exhibition spans more than 600 years, ranging from 1340 to last year, and is a chronological journey through some of the gallery's most important artworks.
It also honours the gallery's founders and benefactors.
Many of the works have been restored or reframed by gallery conservator Jenny Sherman especially for the exhibition.
"We're bringing out pieces that people haven't seen for a long time, along with some old favourites, masterpieces and treasures from the collection.
"It's a sampling that conveys something of the breadth and hints at the depth. It shows something of how the collection has developed over a period of time," Ms Caldwell says.
"But we could have had twice as many works on display.
There are nearly 8000 works in the collection and only room for about 130 in this exhibition.
"You could draw up a different list tomorrow . . . and the next day . . . and the next day . . .
"When we were selecting the works we were talking about what we would grab if the building was on fire," curator Aaron Kreisler says.
"The funny thing was, we all came up with pretty similar lists."
That said, Kreisler would probably be running out of a burning gallery with 19th-century Dutch expressionist Petrus van der Velden's A Waterfall in Otira Gorge under his arm.
"Beloved" is an appropriate name for the exhibition, for the gallery's collection has grown through the hearts of Dunedin people.
"Without all the bequests over the years we wouldn't have this collection.
"The gallery owes its distinctive character and collection to the commitment of our founders and the generosity of our benefactors," Ms Caldwell says.
"It's a wonderful heritage of patronage, which continues to this day. It's a thread, a tradition and a legacy. People respond to that marvellous history and the unique way the collection has come about.
"We've received some remarkable gifts in the last 125 years. It's quite extraordinary," she says.
"People will often bequeath an artwork because they've had a lifetime with it and now they want other people to access it and enjoy it. I think that's a very significant thing," Mr Kreisler says.
"A lot of the Jewish settler families gave a contribution, because they'd connected with the city and wanted to show their thanks for being made to feel welcome.
"It was a way of giving something back to Dunedin. The gallery is very ingrained on the psyche of Dunedin. That's really nice."
William Mathew Hodgkins - father of artist Frances Hodgkins - spearheaded the formation of the Otago Art Society in 1875.
The gallery was established 14 years later, on October 14, 1889.
The gallery has particularly thrived since it was moved to the centre of Dunedin from Logan Park, in 1996.
The recent Rita Angus and Frances Hodgkins exhibitions drew record-breaking crowds.
"It's marvellous that New Zealand artists provoke such a response," Ms Caldwell says.
"Selected works in the 'Beloved' exhibition will change from time to time, to allow more of them to be shown.
"That way, people can come again and again and have a slightly different experience each time."
There is also a strategic aspect to the rotation.
"The 'light life' of a work is monitored, so you can calculate the life expectancy of a work," she says.
"We use a cumulative measure. For example, works on paper are typically shown for six months and then rested."
Public programmes manager Robyn Notman, who co-curated the exhibition with Mr Kreisler, says many works chose themselves.
"Some works absolutely had to be in; like Don Driver's Yellow Tentacle Pram," she says.
"The collection's not just a rambling assemblage of things. You have to have a plan. We affectionately call that `the founders' vision'.
"The works span the late medieval period through to contemporary New Zealand and international art.
"There are paintings, sculpture, ceramics, photography, textiles and works on paper. It ranges across a very wide selection of media."
The gallery has an acquisitions committee which meets annually to allocate its $50,000 Dunedin City Council funding and $50,000 to $65,000 from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Society.
It is milk money compared with what galleries in other main centres receive.
"You're always trying to figure out the spend, to make the most of it and make strategic choices that fill perceived gaps in the collection," Mr Kreisler says.
See it
- "Beloved: Works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery" opens at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery on Saturday and runs until October 30, 2011.
- Free guided tours of the exhibition are being held at 1.30pm on Sundays and 12.30pm on Wednesdays, from Sunday until December 30.
- A book cataloguing the history of the art gallery and 125th anniversary exhibition, Beloved, is available at the gallery (RRP$65).
