Upon reaching Auckland we headed to the Toi o Tamaki Art Gallery, which is said to have once housed civic offices and the public library now turned into a gallery showcasing the development of New Zealand Art. Its exterior was sufficiently different for us to have found out it was a challenge for the architectural firm which in 1887 designed it in Renaissance style.
The groundfloor rooms were for me an introduction to the nation's most prominent artists, whose names I must confess I had never heard of. I took photos of many of the artistic pieces, which caught my attention, irrespective of the reasons.
Right at the entrance and more precisely on one side of the entrance Hall I was drawn to a sculpture, I soon found out to be Nick Cave's.
Soundsuit- vintage textile and sequined appliques, knitted yarn and metal on a mannequin - Nick Cave (USA)
In my father's house - a wall futanga pertaining to a series of Tonga inspired design. Deriving from a verse in the New Testament the artists reflect on the wider implications of the word "father", acknowledging their religious beliefs and cultural influences and honouring their ancestry through the repeated patterns on the Tongan ngatu - Robin White (born in Ngati Awa, New Zealand in 1946), Ruha Fifita (born in Tonga in 1990), Ebonie Fifita (born in Tonga in 1984) and the women of the Havelutoto village in Tongatapu, Tonga.
Whiti Te Ra - Fred Graham (born in Ngati Koroki Kahukura, New Zealand in 1928) - The oil stick painted on board portrays fice figures performing the iconic Maori Haka war dance in all manner of movement and expression.
Te Tu a te Wahine - acrylic on hessian and chipboard - Arnold Manaaki Wilson (1928-2012) - This painting relates to the transformation of females from girlhood to young adulthood.
Te Whaea raua ko ana tamariki (Mother and her children) - acrylic on hardboard - Kura Te Waru Rewiri (born in Ngati Kahu, New Zealand in 1950). This painting shows a crouching mother figure cradling two youngsters.
Final domestic expose or I paint myself - oil and collage on board - Jaqueline Fahey (born in New Zealand in 1929). At the centre of the picture Jaqueline Fahey depicted herself naked in pose inspired by the nude in Edouard Manet in Le déjeuner sur l'herbe.
Poster (right) named Defiant Women by Claudia Pond Eyley (1946).
Fog, Hawke's bay (left) - oil on board. In this painting atmospheric conditions have a sense of timelessness. The mountain ranges are engulfed in fog and haze. Cattle emerge from the smoke in the distance as if they were elements of mirage. Flood, Hawke's bay (right) - oil on canvas. A rainbow arcs throughthe rain clouds. The church at the centre of the composition beneath the rainbow adds a religious dimension to it and reflects the artist's interest in faith - Rita Angus (1908-1970).
Burning hills, Takaka - oil on Swedish hardboard - Leo Bensemann (1912-1986).This painting resuscitates the dead tree motif. It reflects a regular scene from the artist's early life in Golden Bay. Here a small fire in the hills becomes an ominous sign, whose ungrapable warning is reinforced by the line of dead trees in the foreground.
Takaka - night and day - oil on canvas - Colin McCahon (1919-1987). The work's key theme is the movement of light and dark. Imagined from meory, the high aerial viewpoint looks down onto a massive limestone valley which has been eroded over millennia.
The photographer's shadow - Patrick Pound (born in 1962) - This collection gathers images taken with raking daylight behind the photographer, so that he may be included in the snapshot. When ammassed, the photographs, act like a group portrait connecting people whose lives were once separated.
In an increasing dialogue between architecture, painting and the three dimensional space and the painted surface as well as the relationship between the art object and the exhibition space Judy Millar's sculpture right before walking up to the first floor galleries did catch visitors' attention.
(To be continued)
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