Eye-opening experiences

Friend of the Gallery Warwick Brown shares his memories of the Gallery building in today's instalment of 'If these walls could talk...'

Having been born in 1940 I remember the Auckland City Art Gallery building when the southern end still housed the Old Colonists’ Museum and the library. The former was infrequently visited and the displays never changed. I often wonder what happened to the exhibits when this museum closed.

I visited the Art Gallery as a schoolboy, and it seemed very old-fashioned and atrophied to me. My earliest vivid memory is of the Henry Moore sculpture show in 1957. Moore was already my hero, and, as I had never seen a full-size piece, the maquettes on show seemed monumental to me. I spent hours at the exhibition and returned at least three times, jostling with the big crowds.

This experience was followed in 1958 by the excellent show of British art toured by the Arts Council of Great Britain. It was my first opportunity to view a body of modern work from outside New Zealand, and it further opened my eyes, as it did for many others.

Unknown photographer, Mackelvie Gallery Sculpture Court, 1953
silver gelatin print, E H McCormick Research Library, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki Archive Folder PH 01/15

I remember the alterations done to create a mezzanine floor, the new curving staircase guarded at the bottom by a sculpture of a nude seated man, hands on knees. On that mezzanine I will never forget the wonderful show of big, fluted, painted canvas works by Don Peebles. They seemed to me then, and do still, to be works of international importance.

Of the many great experiences I have had in the gallery since, the two big McCahon retrospectives first come to mind. After studying the one in 1972 (Colin McCahon: A Survey Exhibition) on two occasions, I decided McCahon was an invention of the art critics, who were putting one across the public. Thankfully, by the time of the second one the scales had fallen from my eyes.

What else? Frank Womble’s fantastic Zpace Zhow of assemblages, paintings and collage in 1978. Gavin Chilcott’s wonderful painted dining room in the 1980s. The Boyle family’s reconstructions of reality in the 1990s. So much more.

Boyle Family, The Gisborne triptych, 1990
painted fibreglass, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 1990

One thing I really miss is the annual show of emerging artists, drawn from around the country. To a young collector they were a great help. Why were they discontinued?

Warwick Brown

'Marvellous, moving, magnificent...'

Some members of the Friends of the Gallery have written to us to share their own memories of the Gallery – below is a selection, with recollections ranging from spine-tingling emotion to gluttonous buffet-hogs!


"Far and away my most memorable time was at Te Māori - Te Hokinga Mai. My friend and colleague at the Auckland Teachers College Wally Penetito arranged for a contingent of us to be involved – it was marvellous, moving, magnificent. Those truly remarkable taonga - it made the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

"It was a landmark for Māori and Pakeha - we were all so proud. It changed people’s thinking. We all took our students (the trainee teachers) through and many went more than once. I know I did.

"Often you would see Māori speaking to their tupuna/ancestors. A window was opened to another world that was right here in our own country – it was like glimpsing a parallel universe."

Maris O’Rourke

Visitors explore the Te Māori exhibition

"There is no greater pleasure than a walk around the Auckland Art Gallery and then a discussion of what you've viewed over coffee in the cafe. My memories of Grahame Sydney's exhibition (On the Road: Paintings by Grahame Sydney, 2001) and the memories this raised from my South Island soul will live forever in my memory."

Susan F. Stevenson (nee Graham)

Installation view of On the Road: Paintings by Grahame Sydney

"I will always remember Friends functions where lovely food was served. We always had to dodge a certain gentleman who would always be there and eat himself silly. This was supposed to be a 'finger buffet' but he ate the equivalent of a three course meal!"

Gill Knight

Buffet table at a Friends event, 2005 - please the gentleman depicted is NOT the one mentioned in the above anecdote!

Thank you to the Friends who contributed these stories - feel free to share your own in the comments!