February 2012
A Seventies Selection
16 December – 5 February 2012
Awhiowhio - Sandy Adsett
With Snapshot: 1970s Paintings being exhibited in the main gallery it seemed like an appropriate time to exhibit a selection of 1970s artworks from the museum’s fine arts collection. When Jolene Douglas, Exhibition Curator, began searching through the collection it soon became apparent that there are a number of very fine works in the collection dating to this period. These works demonstrate the importance of the fine arts collection as an educational resource for local high schools and the wider community.
During the 1970s there was an active community of artists in Gisborne and a number of them are represented in Jolene’s selection, including Sandy Adsett, Jean Johnston, Norman Maclean, Alison Pickmere and Penny Ormerod.
While the museum’s art acquisition programme has always focused primarily on acquiring works by local artists, a small number of works by nationally renowned artists from other regions have been gifted or purchased. Included in this exhibition are works by Phillip Clairmont, John Drawbridge, Stanley Palmer, William Sutton, Kate Coolahan and Robin White.
Ehutai - Toihoukura
9 December – 12 February 2012
Nga Manu o Tane Mahuta - Huia Edmonds
Toihoukura, the School of Mâori Arts at the Eastern Institute of Technology, formerly Tairâwhiti Polytechnic, has an annual exhibition at the museum and art gallery to showcase the work of senior students. This year the students’ work explores their responses to the many environmental issues that have challenged New Zealanders in recent times, ranging from the Christchurch earthquakes to the prospect of oil drilling in the Raukumara Basin off the East Coast.
Each year at the opening of the exhibition a Toihoukura student is awarded the Ruanuku Award, sponsored by local art patron Professor Jack Richards. The student submits a body of work from which one work is selected to become part of the Tairâwhiti Museum fine arts collection. The first Ruanuku Award was made to Randel Leach in 1995. The Ruanuku Award Collection now includes paintings, mixed media, ceramics and weavings. Two of these works are currently on display in Watersheds: Ngâ Waipupû.
Wood as Witness - Andrew Gordon
10 February – 15 April 2012
Echo
Andrew Gordon completed a Fine Arts degree at Canterbury University in 1982. After teaching at Waimate High School for several years, he worked full-time in Waimate as a painter and stone carver, exhibiting his work in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
Since 2003 Andrew has lived at Waerenga-a-hika where he has continued to develop his sculptural work, including working in wood. Recent commissions have included the Waerenga-a-hika Flax Cross for the Anglican Diocese of Waiapu, to mark the early mission station at Waerenga-a-hika. The four-metre high art work of laminated totara heartwood was dedicated during the 2007 Waiapu Synod by Archbishop William Brown Turei and Bishop John Bluck.
Andrew outlines the motivation for his latest series of wood carvings:
"Living close to an old pa site I have become increasingly aware of past lives lived out on the land we now inhabit. The importance of trees to those people and the continuing rich tradition of carving in this area was a catalyst for me to explore these connections from my own tradition."
Prior Collection Paintings
3 February – 1 April 2012
Luncheon Under The Ash Tree - Evelyn Page
Ian and Elespie Prior spent 56 years assembling a collection of paintings by New Zealand artists with whom they maintained personal associations over many years. Dr Ian Prior is remembered for his pioneering epidemiological studies, as a founding member of the New Zealand branch of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and for his involvement in environmental and cultural issues.
Jolene Douglas, our Exhibitions Curator, has selected 27 works from the Prior Collection. The Priors demonstrated a preference for figurative and landscape works over abstract painting and Jolene has respected this in her selection of works for this exhibition.
At the heart of the exhibition are four groups of paintings by Evelyn Page (1899-1988), Toss Woollaston (1910-1998), John Drawbridge (1930-2005) and Jeffery Harris (1949-). Ranging from Page’s richly coloured portraits to Woollaston’s vigorous elemental landscapes and from Drawbridge’s technically refined abstracted landscapes to Jeffery Harris’ bold figurative works, this exhibition provides something for everyone and provides a wide sweep across New Zealand painting.
Other artists represented in the exhibition are Doris Lusk, Oliver Spencer Bower, Stanley Palmer, Colin McCahon, Anna Caselberg, Gordon Crook, Ralph Hotere, Pat Hanly, Eric Lee Johnson and Douglas McDiarmid.
These works from the Prior Collection are on loan from Aratoi (Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, Masterton). In 2009 Aratoi also loaned us a selection of paintings from the Rutherford Trust Collection. We acknowledge the support of the Director and staff of Aratoi in facilitating these loans.
Forever - Stella Goodall
17 February – 9 April 2012
Forever
English born artist Stella Goodall lived in Paris and New York before settling in Gisborne in 2001.
A successful model who collaborated with top international photographers, Stella has been focussed on creating and telling stories through visual media since she was a child. She studied painting, drawing and photography at the New York School of Fine Art and the School of Visual Art.
Her debut exhibition, ‘Joan’, opened in New York’s upper west side, and her work is held in private collections around the world.
Inspired by the East Coast’s beauty, Stella paints in her Wainui Beach studio, a restored railway station building.
Trains, Planes and Tsunamis - Photographs from the Tyerman Collection
opens 21 August 2011
The first train trip from Gisborne to Napier, the landing of Charles Kingsford Smith’s historic Southern Cross aeroplane on Waikanae Beach and the 1947 tsunami are some of the significant local events that are depicted in this exhibition.
Captured by father and son photographers, Harold Berkley Tyerman and Ivan Warwick Tyerman, these images have been sourced from the recently donated Tyerman Collection.
Harold and Ivan Tyerman were pharmacists. Tyerman’s Pharmacy was initially established by Harold in Woodville, near the Manawatu Gorge, in 1922, and subsequently in various locations on Gladstone Road in Gisborne. Upon his father’s retirement, Ivan and his wife Annette (also a pharmacist) ran the pharmacy until 1995.
In the pre-digital era it was usual for amateur photographers to take their exposed films to a pharmacy or chemist for processing. The Tyermans had a darkroom on their premises and also sold photographic equipment. They provided printing services for many businesses from Wairoa through to Opotiki.
The Tyermans’ style of photography is more documentary than artistic, however their photographic skills produced images that contain a wealth of information. The photographs they have created are of vital importance to the historical record of this region, and are thus of great interest to historians and researchers. A number of the Tyermans’ images have been used to illustrate books, encyclopaedias and websites.
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