Kā Kaupapa o te Wā
What’s On
Raymond McIntyre: A Modernist View
Dynamic and progressive paintings and woodcuts from one of Aotearoa’s New Zealand foremost modernist artists.
Living Archives
Archives that tell stories about artists and history in Aotearoa
Whāia te Taniwha
Māori artists consider the enduring relevance of taniwha in Aotearoa.
E tuwhera ana te wharetoi i kā rā e 7 o te wiki, 10am - 5pm
Ka tuwhera ki te 9pm i kā pō Wenerei
Open 7 days, 10am - 5pm
Late night Wednesday until 9pm
Uruka utukore, ahokore utukore
Free entry, free wifi
Collection
Mary Barrett Horse
Mary Barrett was a promising sculpture student who flourished under Shurrock’s teaching at the art school during the 1930s. Her workbook records the detailed process of creating the original plaster version of Horse, which was cast in bronze later in her life. With its carefully observed and rendered anatomical details, Horse highlights a talented student with a promising future. Barrett married fellow artist Leo Bensemann in 1943, but, like many women of her generation had to largely give up her aspirations of becoming an artist to focus on supporting her husband’s career, being a mother and raising a family.
(Dear Shurrie: Francis Shurrock and his contemporaries, 8 March – 13 July 2025)
Collection
Charles Meryon, Edmond Gosselin Tourelle de la rue de la Tixéranderie
The rue de la Tixéranderie was a very ancient Parisian street, known by that name from as early as the twelfth century. It ran east to west, north of the Hôtel de Ville. It took its name from the weavers (tisserands) who lived and worked there.
All the buildings were demolished, and the street itself eliminated, when the rue de Rivoli was built in the 1850s.
Collection
Auguste Delâtre, Charles Meryon Canoe Sternpost
French artist Charles Meryon was a naval officer aboard the corvette Rhin, which was stationed in Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa the Pacific Ocean between 1843 and 1846. The Rhin was primarily based at Akaroa to oversee French whaling interests and the small French settlement that had been established there in 1840. Meryon made numerous studies of the landscape, local Ngāi Tahu and the fledgling French settlement. Taonga Māori also caught his eye and he drew detailed studies of toi whakairo (carving), including these wonderfully detailed studies of the intricate patterns that adorned the sternpost, prow and other features of waka. It is not known if the waka in these images was drawn in Akaroa or the Bay of Islands where the Rhin also spent time. These three works were copied from Meryon’s originals by his close friend and fellow artist Auguste Delâtre in the 1860s.
(Ship Nails and Tail Feathers, 10 June – 22 October 2023)
Collection
Auguste Delâtre, Charles Meryon Canoe Details
French artist Charles Meryon was a naval officer aboard the corvette Rhin, which was stationed in Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa the Pacific Ocean between 1843 and 1846. The Rhin was primarily based at Akaroa to oversee French whaling interests and the small French settlement that had been established there in 1840. Meryon made numerous studies of the landscape, local Ngāi Tahu and the fledgling French settlement. Taonga Māori also caught his eye and he drew detailed studies of toi whakairo (carving), including these wonderfully detailed studies of the intricate patterns that adorned the sternpost, prow and other features of waka. It is not known if the waka in these images was drawn in Akaroa or the Bay of Islands where the Rhin also spent time. These three works were copied from Meryon’s originals by his close friend and fellow artist Auguste Delâtre in the 1860s.
(Ship Nails and Tail Feathers, 10 June – 22 October 2023)
