Curator Natalie Poland will conduct a personal tour of the Brasch exhibition, "Charles Brasch: In the Company of Artists" on Saturday.
The exhibition comprises more than 80 artworks, as well as photographs and archival material, relating to the life of the Dunedin philantropist, who was born 100 years ago, on July 27, 1909.
Although his first love was literature, the Landfall founder developed close friendships with many artists who were active in New Zealand in the third quarter of last century.
The exhibition focuses on Brasch's relationships with four significant New Zealand artists: Evelyn Page, Toss Woollaston, Eric Lee-Johnson and Colin McCahon.
Pages from his journals and his correspondence with the artists are displayed alongside artworks Brasch collected and gifted to the Hocken Library, either during his lifetime or with his 1973 bequest.
His donations of 459 artworks included some of the icons of New Zealand art, such as Hodgkins' Double Portrait (1922) and McCahon's The Virgin and Child Compared (1948).
Brasch was an intensely private man, but canvassed tirelessly to increase appreciation for New Zealand art.
"The show is a great opportunity of people to discover the secret life of Brasch's philanthropy. The level of his generosity to artists was not widely known in his lifetime," Poland says.
"It is more than an exhibition of some of his painting collection, which he gifted to the Hocken during his lifetime and as part of his bequest. There is lots of photographs and letters he has written to artists and one of his journals on display."
The exhibition is accompanied by a 48-page catalogue, which features essays, photographs and art by McCahon, Woollaston, Page and Lee-Johnson donated to the Hocken by Brasch.
The tour is on at 10.30am on Saturday at the Hocken Collections Gallery in Anzac Ave.
"Charles Brasch In the Company of Artists" runs until October 10.
