Hidden Sarjeant Collection treasures on display

Hidden Sarjeant Collection treasures on display

13 June 2016

A selection of art works from one of the country’s most extensive and valuable regional art collections - including some significant works that have never been shown in public - go on display at the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua in Whanganui this month.

The unique exhibition - ‘Revealed- Collection discoveries from our recent move' – features an eclectic mix of more than 40 artworks from the Sarjeant collection dating from the 1600s to the 1970s.

Curator of Collections Jennifer Taylor Moore says the exhibition was inspired by treasures that were discovered and stories that were unearthed during relocation of the nationally significant collection from the historic Sarjeant Gallery in Queens Park to a temporary gallery – Sarjeant on the Quay – between April 2014 and December 2015.

(The 97-year-old gallery is at the centre of a proposed $34 million redevelopment that includes earthquake proofing and restoration work and construction of a new wing to house the collection.)

Prior to the shift the collection had an estimated known 5,500 works spanning 400 years of New Zealand and international art history. The subsequent discovery of several thousand more works - many of which were undocumented - in the cramped, overcrowded Gallery basement during the shift took the number to just over 8,300.

“Items were hidden away behind shelves and under boxes in the basement and fascinating stories emerged as these treasures were researched and identified,” says Ms Taylor Moore.

She says some of the works in the Revealed exhibition have not seen the light of day for decades.

“Others were undocumented and are going on display for the first time.”

They include an untitled portrait of an Elizabethan gentleman dating back to the 1600s that was found between framed works on a basement shelf, a series of lithographs documenting the Crimean War discovered in a crate under some frames and a Jacobean embroidery of the Tree of Life gifted to the gallery in 1922 that had been folded and left for years on top of a set of drawers.

The exhibition also includes a number of items like the collection of wooden hand crafted toys used by children who visited the gallery in the 1980s that were retrieved from a storage box in the boiler room.

Taylor Moore says a mysterious inscription to ‘McSweeney’ discovered on the back of a painting by Maori artist Cliff Whiting that was commissioned by the gallery in 1973, turned out to be a note for the resident Gallery cat.

She says the focus for Revealed has been on the stories that were unearthed rather than the value of the works.

“It’s about what they tell us and how they connect the Gallery with the local community and further afield. They are stories of discovery that give people a snap shot of the breadth of the collection. “

She says the temporary Gallery at Taupo Quay has enabled the Sarjeant collection to be properly documented and stored but there is no space to expand.

“We have opened up a world of opportunity for future exhibitions. The priority now is to get back to a redeveloped facility on the site of the original Sarjeant Gallery in Queens Park so we can continue to make the most of opportunities to provide the public with access to our nationally significant art collection.”

REVEALED – Collection discoveries from our recent move and a second exhibition SEE WHAT I CAN SEE - Discovering New Zealand Photography are on display at Sarjeant on the Quay until September 18. The exhibitions are being officially opened by the Hon Chris Finlayson QC Friday 24 June.

ENDS

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