Pauline Trengrove

b.1930, d.2021

Untitled

  • 1985
  • Acrylic on canvas
  • William A Sutton bequest, 2000
  • 632 x 632mm
  • 2000/31

On the occasion of the artist's death in January 2021, this work was displayed with this label:

This painting is exhibited in memory of Ōtautahi Christchurch artist Pauline Trengrove, who died on 1 January this year. It is typical of Trengrove’s clean, refined approach to geometric abstraction, and was donated to the Gallery in 2000 as part of a large bequest from the collection of artist Bill Sutton. Trengrove’s works reveal her interest in a delicate interplay between overlapping forms, subtly varied textures and restrained colouration. In an Art New Zealand review of her work in 1976, the art historian Rodney Wilson praised her “fine sense of painterly understatement”.

In addition to her painting practice, Trengrove made a lasting contribution through her work as a gardener, partnering with her brother Sir Miles Warren and her husband John Trengrove (both architects) to create the internationally renowned garden Ōhinetahi in Governors Bay in the 1970s and 80s. Spanning more than 1.25 hectares of formally ordered and connected “garden rooms”, it was given to the people of Aotearoa New Zealand in 2012.