Director's Foreword

Thank you to everyone who helped make it all happen. In August, we proudly announced the acquisition of Aratohu, a wonderful new addition to the Gallery’s collection. This remarkable moving-image work by esteemed Aotearoa New Zealand artist Lisa Reihana (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Tūeauru, Ngāi Tūpoto) is currently on display in Whāia te Taniwha, and is immersive and evocative. It unfolds as a compelling narrative that grapples with struggle, temptation, fear and self-doubt. The acquisition of Aratohu marks the start of an exciting new phase in our collection development, and is the result of over eleven years of hard work by our Foundation. Launched in 2011, their Together programme has focused on creating a $5 million endowment fund to support future acquisitions for the Gallery—that fundraising total was reached in 2023 and Aratohu is the first purchase to be made from the fund. My sincere thanks go to Charlotte Gray, chair of Christchurch Art Gallery Foundation, the Foundation Trustees past and present, and our Together partners. Your generosity and ongoing support for the Gallery is truly amazing. We could not have commissioned and acquired such a significant work of art without you.

There has been considerable discussion over recent months regarding the government’s proposal to remove art history from the New Zealand high school curriculum. I have written a letter on behalf of this Gallery to the Ministry of Education expressing our concerns about this decision. Additionally, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki has coordinated a joint letter outlining the collective concerns of Aotearoa New Zealand’s art galleries, which has been co-signed by numerous gallery directors, including me, and submitted to the Ministry. This is a worrying and short-sighted proposal, and it is hoped that the increasing opposition will prompt urgent reconsideration. Art history is foundational to the work the Gallery does, and removing it from the curriculum will weaken the arts ecosystem that brings so many of us together in positive, perspective-widening ways.

Fittingly, in this issue of Bulletin Gallery librarian and archivist Tim Jones talks with curator Melanie Oliver about art history and archives as they put the final touches to the new exhibition they have jointly curated, Living Archives. This exhibition features the archives of three important Ōtautahi art historians, Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, Julie King and Karen Stevenson, and uses them to explore intergenerational relationships and creativity. Peter Vangioni introduces our new exhibition on progressive expatriate New Zealand artist Raymond McIntyre, who spent most of his career working in London. McIntyre’s paintings are regularly included in group shows, so visitors to the Gallery will be familiar with his economic and dynamic style, but this is the first focused survey of his career since 1985. It’s a long overdue assessment that brings together works from around the motu, including two fantastic new additions to the Gallery’s collection.

Unutai e! Unutai e! harnesses the power of contemporary art to shed light on an urgent environmental crisis: the deteriorating state of fresh water across Kāi Tahu tribal lands. It has come to us from Dunedin Public Art Gallery and has special relevance for Ōtautahi, given the strong connections with many local waterways and the people working to protect them across the region. We’re pleased to be able to reproduce here three of the seventeen texts that feature in the exhibition, by Elizabeth Brown, Gabrielle Huria and Te Maire Tau, each accompanied by Anne Noble’s photographs. The remaining texts will be available to read on our website.

By the time this magazine is released, our Bunker will have been transformed by Kāi Tahu artist Areta Wilkinson, whose Te Mauri o te Puna connects us with the nourishing spring referenced in the Māori name of the building—Te Puna o Waiwhetū. Wilkinson talks with lead curator Felicity Milburn about the site, scale and meaning of this commissioned project, which will be displayed for five years. And Shona Rapira Davies talks to pouarataki curator Māori Chloe Cull about the genesis for her spectacular sculpture Ko te Kihikihi Taku Ingoa, which has been on display in our foyer since earlier this year (and was the cover star of our winter Bulletin).

My Favourite comes from Ōtautahi-based Green MP Kahurangi Carter, who picks a work by Mataaho Collective from Whāia te Taniwha. Pagework is supplied by Ōtautahi artist Julia Holderness, who has a deep interest in archives and forgotten stories. And we also include our Year in Review, which brings together our activities over the last financial year.

I’d like to end with some special news. Many of you told us how much you enjoyed Fred Graham: Toi Whakaata/Reflections, which was developed by Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery and recently presented in our upstairs galleries. So I am delighted to announce that we have acquired a significant work from that outstanding exhibition, Te Wehenga o Rangi rāua ko Papa (1988). This kauri and steel sculpture represents a key moment in Matua Fred’s influential practice, and is a fitting way to acknowledge his contribution to the art of Aotearoa New Zealand in our collection. We thank his family for their support of the exhibition and for making this acquisition possible.