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Auckland Art Gallery's BlogHaerewa Tribute to Arnold Maanaki Wilson 1928 - 2012Dr Arnold Manaaki Wilson, MNZN, QSM, Arts Foundation Icon, PhD (Honorary), DipFA (Hons) Arnold will be dearly missed as the Kaumatua of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and kaumatua of our close Haerewa whanau. He led the way for the Gallery in Māori protocols and made everyone in it culturally safe. He blessed Haerewa and with those blessings made us a strong, cohesive group. He Arnold Manaaki Wilson 1928 - 2012Kuramihirangi meeting house, Te Rewarewa Marae, Ruatoki, Date unknown Reference Number: 1/4-002747-F. Taken by an unidentified photographer. Date unknown. National Library of New Zealand Arnold Manaaki Wilson was born and died in the Year of the Dragon. He would say he had a good life, and he did, as great taniwha do. He iti na Tūhoe, e kata te po.[1] Arnold lived outside of his ‘Spiders, dancers and drama!' - the April school holiday workshops with the 9-12 year oldsIn each holiday workshop for the 9-12 year olds we visited a work of art in the Degas to Dalí exhibition. We had a discussion in front of each work of art to gather inspiration and ideas to take back studio. In the studio we experimented with materials to create our own works of art in response to what we saw and discussed, as well as our own ideas. On Tuesday’s workshop we focused on ‘Sand and sgraffito, bottles and blues’: 6-8 year olds Holiday ProgrammeThe April school holiday workshops were a great success. The mornings were filled with energetic 6-8 year olds eager to look at and make art. In each workshop we visited a work of art in the Degas to Dalí exhibition and had a discussion together to gather inspiration and ideas from the work of art. We then returned to the studio to experiment with materials and create our own works of art in Leo Bensemann (1912-1986)Ron Brownson invited Professor Peter Simpson to mark the 100th anniversary of Leo Bensemann's birth. Leo Bensemann (who died in 1986) was born exactly 100 years ago on May 1, 1912, sharing his birth year with poet and printer, Denis Glover (1912-80), with whom he forged a creative relationship as co-partners of the Caxton Press – the Christchurch firm which published most of the important New Have you seen Degas to Dalí yet?Degas to Dalí has been getting a great response from our visitors - we're loving hearing the comments made to our Gallery guides, volunteer guides and other front of house staff. In addition to this feedback, everyone who visits the show gets handed an entry form to win a trip to Melbourne, on which we ask them: ‘What would you tell someone, who hasn’t yet been to the exhibition, about Degas The colour known as Greige Drab GambogeFarrow and Ball is an English paint company renowned for their promotion of heritage colours. They make emulsions and distempers as well as lime washes. I have an addiction to colour in both interiors and for decoration. It informs how I think about visual art experienced by the public. The names which Farrow and Ball’s utilise for their colours art are partly traditional to the 18th century James Franco's book coverSunday Studio: 'It looks like Boyd Webb has travelled into space with some curtains!'Boyd Webb, Blessed, 1985 cibachrome photograph, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 1986 After recapping on all the things we have learned about different ways of mapping, we headed up to the Toi Aotearoa exhibition again, this time to look at the photographic print called Blessed by Boyd Webb. The childrens' hands flew up the moment they were seated in front of the work, When interviews say 'Speak to Us'Do you know the Great Interview series published by the Guardian? http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2007/sep/14/greatinterviews There's some seriously memorable chats. Truman Capote speaks with Marlon Brando during 1957 - 'The more sensitive you are, the more certain you are to be brutalised' Richard Meryman interviews Marilyn Monroe in 1962 - 'When you're famous you run Thinking about William McAloon's acquisitionsEveryone who worked with William McAloon appreciated his perceptive eye. William was a curator who could recognise quality in a nano-second. We laughed about this together as it sometimes surprised me to learn what he liked. He was as equally eloquent an advocate for Pat Hanly as he was for Jeffrey Harris. Jörg Immendorff’s dark visions delighted him, although the real-life notion of going to a Sunday Studio: A Sticker or Dart to help you make art!Here are some more images of works made by the children in the 6-8 year olds cARTography studio course. The children have been exploring ideas around mapping in art as they think about ways of charting their personal journey from home to the Gallery. We love the colours the children have chosen to use for their works. They are so vibrant and energetic, and give a real sense (we think!) of how William McAloonWith William’s passing I am struggling to find words which can express the grief we feel. To his partner Courtney and to his family and friends we extend our aroha at this time of bereavement. William was an exceptional curator, and he was also an admired and dear friend. I would need to write many paragraphs to explain why William was such a uniquely gifted advocate for New Zealand’s visual Conservation Bite! Part 3Paintings conservator Ingrid Ford continues our series on the treatment of On the Sea-Beat Shore by William Calderon. View the first two installments here. So onto the treatment! Once the painting was laid out, we needed to come up with a plan on what steps we could achieve in the time the work was in the lab. Our first step had to be to clean and consolidate the cracked and damaged Sunday Studio: The Inside Story (‘Have fun in art and know you tried your hardest’)The first session of our 6-8 year olds studio course, cARTography, was a whirlwind of brainstorming, research, gallery discussion and visual map making. After brainstorming a few rules for our group (Poppy’s suggestion to ‘have fun and know you tried your hardest’ rule was unanimously accepted!), we made a mind map of different types of maps (maps of journeys, minds, treasures, streets, Jan Nigro 1920-2012It is with wrenching sadness that I write of the recent passing of Jan Nigro. Born at Gisborne in 1920, Jan enrolled at the Elam School of Fine Arts in 1937. Her teachers were Auckland’s key art tutors of the period – Archibald Fisher, John Weeks and A. Lois White. Their inspiration and their commitment to figuration stayed with Jan for life. In fact, when I review New Zealand’s art scene she is Sunday Studio: The Inside Story (‘What did you do in art today, honey?’)Welcome to our first blog from the Studio at the Auckland Art Gallery! We are excited to have the platform to celebrate the ideas and techniques that the children are interpreting through discussion and making in our studio courses. Not only does it give us a chance to showcase the fantastic ideas that the children are expressing visually, but we hope to also provide interested parents with a His Majesty King Siaosi Taufa'ahau Manumataongo Tuku'aho Tupou VOn March 19, Helen Clark, Development Programme Administrator at the United Nations Headquarters sent a letter of condolences to the Honorable Siale ‘Ataongo Kaho Lord Tu'ivakano, the Prime Minister of Tonga. Miss Clark’s letter noted "Tonga has lost an extraordinary leader, who voluntarily relinquished absolute powers to embrace the democratic aspirations of his people. His Majesty has left a Conservation Bite! Part 2On the Sea-Beat Shore by William Calderon is now lying on two very large tables in one of the painting conservation studios. The first step is to carry out a thorough examination. We need a very good record of its current condition because once the treatment starts, we won’t be able to remember everything in detail and it would be hard to prove that new damages haven’t occurred if we were New York Times special issue on MuseumsYesterday, the New York Times published its regular special issue on Museums. If you have never checked these out here’s the linkhttp://www.nytimes.com/pages/arts/artsspecial/?ref=artsThe current issue has some fascinating back-stories like how visitors use cameras to experience art, what curators do and the growth in museum based education. Recommended. Conservation Bite! Part 1William Frank Calderon’s 1905 painting On the Sea-Beat Shore, Where Thracians Tame Wild Horses, from Alexander Pope, Homer’s Iliad has been the subject of a Conservation Bite. Conservation Bites offer visitors the opportunity to step inside the Gallery’s painting conservation studio. They have been happening every lunchtime this week, and we thought that people might be interested to follow the Francis Upritchard’s LoafersEarly in the evening of 7 March, Francis Upritchard’s Loafers was launched at the confluence of Symonds, Wellesley and St Paul Streets. It was a busy and rainy day. I felt like a witness to a true unveiling, even though I had encountered the sculptures in preceding days. The Wellesley Street over bridge has been a dead-space for years. While 1000s of people walk by daily, it has always seemed Abstracted naturalismHow do you describe how someone is posing in carte de visites made at Dunedin between 1876 and 1880? Stiff? Relaxed? Modelled? Formal? Or, articulated? Here are three portraits of an unknown person. The first was made in 1876, the remaining two during 1880. There are no handwritten inscriptions on the verso other than the years in which they were made.I propose that the first portrait is of the St Bede’s vs Christ CollegePhotography of sport is now some of the most complex action images being created. With moving cameras, operating from multiple viewpoints it is possible to experience competition from within the game. This was not always the case. In fact, even during the 1970s action shots were frequently achieved using miniature 35mm cameras and fast film stocks like Kodak TRI-X.I came across recently one of Ross Beckerhttp://picasaweb.google.com/rossbeckernzProfessor Ian Lochead of the University of Canterbury informed me that one of the best websites to access photographs documenting Christchurch is maintained by Ross Becker. |
Camera Antipodea - Catalogue No. 1. ISBN 9780473177911. “Our country is changing. The old is falling, passing. The new, almost here, taking form, replacing. There is an urgency, a pressing, futile need to grasp. Without details, our memory will fail, and we will become groundless.” |
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