Kā Kaupapa o te Wā
What’s On
Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist
A rare opportunity to view the work of one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most adventurous and experimental modernist artists.
Made in the Pacific: A Collection of Tāoga
A selection of Pacific tāoga from the Canterbury Museum in conversation with contemporary artworks that highlight the continued strength in culture and traditional art forms.
Mark Adams: A Survey | He Kohinga Whakaahua
A comprehensive survey spanning the artist's career.
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
Sydney Parkinson, John Barralet The Head of a New Zealander
Aged twenty-three, Edinburgh-born botanical illustrator and natural history artist Sydney Parkinson joined Captain James Cook’s ambitious 1768–71 Pacific expedition aboard HMS Endeavour. He worked prodigiously but tragically died on the voyage home. This etching reproduces his study of a chief’s son he met near Rākaumangamanga Cape Brett in November 1769 – recorded as ‘Otegoowgoow’, the sitter was possibly Otekaukau or Te Kuukuu.
(Out of Time, 23 September 2023 – 28 April 2024)
Collection
Edmund Norman Tekapo Ferry
Many of New Zealand’s early artists, including Edmund Norman, were surveyors. It was an occupation that required the ability to draw accurately, something Norman excelled at. He was one of the best draughtspersons to work in Aotearoa New Zealand during the 1850s and 60s, and his drawings are breathtaking in their detail. Unfortunately Norman had a drinking problem and in the early 1850s was arrested for drunkenness in Ōhinehou / Lyttelton. By the 1860s he was living a reclusive life working as a station hand in the Te Manahura / Mackenzie Country inland from Timaru. One winter’s morning he was found dead on the side of the road near the Burkes Pass Hotel. It was thought that, in a drunken state after a session at the hotel, he had collapsed on his walk home and succumbed to exposure in the cold night air. Legend has it that he had a bottle of whiskey in one pocket and sketchbook and pencil in the other. His drawings of both Ōhinehou / Lyttelton and Te Manahura / Mackenzie Country remain some of the most accomplished images of the province from this time.
(Pickaxes and shovels, 17 February – 5 August 2018)
Collection
Siliga David Setoga Oki fa'a-kama-Samoa-moni lou ulu (Cut your hair like a true Samoan boy)
Notes
Among the sandhills by Adrian Stokes
This article first appeared as 'Sandhills painting's life as nomadic as artist's' in The Press, 15 August 2017.
