Marti Friedlander Margaret Mahy 2008. Gelatin silver print toned with gold. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased with the generous assistance of the artist and FHE Galleries, 2016
Ben Cauchi Hovering Object 2005. Ambrotype. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2005
Petrus van der Velden Burial in the Winter on the Island of Marken [also known as The Dutch Funeral] 1872. Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, gift of Henry Charles Drury van Asch, 1932
This exhibition is now closed
Sometimes the most compelling thing is what isn’t there.
In art, absence implies loss, exclusion, transformation and more – it’s the unspoken subject in some of the Gallery’s most intriguing works. This selection from the collection presents well-known paintings by renowned Aotearoa New Zealand artists such as Rita Angus, Ralph Hotere, Colin McCahon and Petrus van der Velden alongside an array of more recent works by Claudia Kogachi, Dane Mitchell, Kazu Nakagawa and Conor Clarke. Ranging across a wide spectrum that includes the mournful and the mischievous, the monumental and the hardly-there-at-all, Absence invites viewers to fill in the gaps.
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Date:
6 May – 20 August 2023 -
Location:
Burdon Family Gallery Monica Richards Gallery -
Curator:
Felicity Milburn -
Exhibition number:
1150
Collection works in this exhibition
Related
My Favourite
James Powell and Sons: St Mary Magdalene and Mary Mother of James at the Empty Tomb
You may be wondering why I chose this piece of art as my favourite. Perhaps you think it’s for the craftsmanship of the stained glass. Or maybe I’ve lost someone, and the artwork brings me comfort. But you’d be wrong. This piece of art, which was rescued from the Barbadoes Street Cemetery Chapel, triggers a memory.
Commentary
Something’s Missing
It’s among the best-loved paintings in the Gallery’s collection, celebrated for the connections and conversations it generates between different generations. People who, as children, encountered Petrus van der Velden’s Burial in the winter on the island of Marken [The Dutch Funeral] (1872) in the neoclassical spaces of the old Robert McDougall Art Gallery now bring their own grandchildren to Te Puna o Waiwhetū to see it.