This exhibition is now closed
Absence
6 May –
20 August 2023
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
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.
My Gallery
Collection works in this exhibition
Curator:
Felicity Milburn
Location:
Burdon Family Gallery
Monica Richards Gallery
Exhibition number: 1150
Collection works in this exhibition (44)
Indigenous IV
Denise Copland
Funeral In The Cathedral
David Cook
bird of unknown affinities, Manu antiquus
Dane Mitchell
Ghost
Claudia Kogachi
The Sky over Columbus (described by Shawn Lowe)
Conor Clarke
Requiem
Ralph Hotere
Northland
Colin McCahon
Northland
Colin McCahon
Northland
Colin McCahon
The Last Tenant
Ivy Fife
Robson Avenue, Avonside, 2014
Tim J. Veling
Margaret Mahy
Marti Friedlander
CASS
André Hemer
moon enso - king
Max Gimblett
Pracht
Katharina Jaeger
White Lantern
Anne Noble
Shag Pile
Bill Hammond
Standing man and Tony Fomison’s jacket
Martin Whitworth
Eel - Birdling’s Flat - Black Stones Waitaki River
Bing Dawe
Joe 90’s Bed
Grahame Sydney
Home Comforts
Eion Stevens
The Two Marys At The Empty Tomb
James Powell and Sons
Sans Everything
Trevor Moffitt
The Physician
Gerrit Dou
Hovering Object
Ben Cauchi
Northland
Colin McCahon
As good as it gets
Susan Collis
Burial in the Winter on the Island of Marken [The Dutch Funeral]
Petrus van der Velden
Mourning
Janneth Gil
not for the time
Kazu Nakagawa
Building, Peterborough St, 23/07/2012
Miranda Parkes
Rapanui [Shag Rock], Opawaho/Heathcote and Otakaro/Avon River Estuary, severely damaged in the earthquake of 22 Feb 2011. Photograph taken 25 August 1988, printed 2011.
Mark Adams
Captain Ahab, peg-legged hunter of the white whale
Tony Fomison
Untitled
Séraphine Pick
Saying goodbye to Florence
Robin White
Saying goodbye to Florence
Robin White
Saying goodbye to Florence
Robin White
Saying goodbye to Florence
Robin White
Saying goodbye to Florence
Robin White
Saying goodbye to Florence
Robin White
Dust, Smoke and Rainbows
Shane Cotton
Cass
Rita Angus
Tod Greift In Kinderschar
Käthe Kollwitz
Pathway to the Sea - Aramoana
Bill Culbert, Ralph Hotere
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.
Notes
Design a new frame for one of the city’s favourite paintings!
Ākonga from Years 3–8 are invited to enter a competition to design an imaginative frame for one of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū’s most treasured paintings, Burial in the Winter on the Island of Marken (also known as The Dutch Funeral).
This iconic 150-year-old painting is having its original gold frame restored by our expert conservator, Anne-Sophie Ninino. Competion winners will get to go behind-the-scenes to meet Anne-Sophie and apply a piece of gold leaf to the frame.