Showing more than its subject
With only one exhibition space and more than 18,000 art works in its permanent collection, there are many treasures that are rarely seen first-hand in the Hocken Pictures collection.
Cool and Collected
An important insight
An important insight
A scene from "everyday life" in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection provides a missing link, writes Lauren Gutsell.
From both sides now
From both sides now
Reversible garments have come into and gone out of fashion over many years. There’s a certain novelty appeal, combined with a sense of ingenious efficiency.
Ruling the roost
Ruling the roost
A tie pin made from a gold nugget recovered at the height of the gold dredging boom in Otago was donated in the 1950s to Toitu Otago Early Settlers Museum by the family of the late Alexander Crow McGeorge.
Lotto’s poetic oriental origins
Lotto’s poetic oriental origins
Every Saturday as thousands of Kiwis hold their Lotto tickets in eager anticipation of becoming overnight millionaires, few would realise they're part of a tradition that goes back to Otago’s 19th-century Chinese gold seekers.
A serving of history
A serving of history
ln the European spring of 1957, Dora de Beer was holidaying in Rome having recently arranged the shipment of a small but exciting group of Italian ceramics to Otago Museum in Dunedin.
A life of art out of the limelight
A life of art out of the limelight
Next to the wall text that introduces Colin McCahon: A Constant Flow of Light at Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hakena, hangs the still-life painting Poppies (c.1937), by Anne Hamblett (1915-1993).
Focus on systems of power
Focus on systems of power
The most recent artwork to enter the collection of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery is I thought I heard you crying in the forest, by Ayesha Green (Ngati Kahungunu, Kai Tahu), and it is now on...
Fine example of engraving
Fine example of engraving
In March 1920, a group of artists, including Lucien Pissarro, Noel Rooke, Gwen Raverat and Eric Gill, founded the United Kingdom-based Society of Wood Engravers.
A man of many talents
A man of many talents
In 1865, a grand exhibition, the first of its type in New Zealand, was staged in Dunedin.
Patterns of behaviour
Patterns of behaviour
One of the largest knitting pattern collections within a New Zealand institution is held in the Hocken Collections at the University of Otago.
More belief than science
More belief than science
Given our Covid-19 pandemic experience, it’s worth looking back a century to New Zealand’s previous encounter with a worldwide pandemic.
The Titans back from obscurity
The Titans back from obscurity
Local music histories are marked with stories of lost bands, forgotten songs and musicians that nearly made it.
Window on lives of artists
Window on lives of artists
An artist’s journals provide rare insights, writes Anna Blackman.
Work a response to ‘60s politics
Work a response to ‘60s politics
One of three works by Michael Illingworth (1932-1988) in the Hocken Pictorial Collections is The Painter and the Poet, from 1965.
Creatures great and small
Creatures great and small
The familiar motif of our fellow animals decorates work at Dunedin Public Art Gallery, writes Lucy Hammonds.
A collection of broken hearts
A collection of broken hearts
The impulse to collect and hold on to an object might be for entirely logical reasons, or sometimes we are driven purely by our emotions.
Decorations of distinction
Decorations of distinction
Italian glass on the Theomins' dining table tells a tale of Venice, Jenny Longstaff writes.
An artist’s brush with Cubism
An artist’s brush with Cubism
Dame Louise Henderson was born in Paris at the beginning of La Belle Epoch (The Golden Age) at the turn of the 20th-century.
Gateway to Otago’s history
Gateway to Otago’s history
Visitors to Toitu’s exhibition galleries now pass under the outstretched wings of Toroa, the centrepiece of an impressive carved gateway, or waharoa, recently unveiled at the museum.