The Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery at Pukenamu, Queen's Park Whanganui is a regional art museum with a collection of international and New Zealand art. It was closed for 10 years for redevelopment and re-opened on Saturday 9 November 2024. [1] [2] In 2024 it was announced as a 2024 NatGeo Best of the World pick.
The Sarjeant was built as the result of a bequest to the city by Henry Sarjeant in 1912. Sarjeant bequeathed the money "for the inspiration of ourselves and those who come after us." [3] A competition was held to select an architect for the project; the winner was Dunedin architect Edmund Anscombe, but it is likely the actual design was completed by a young student in his offices named Donald Hosie. [3] The cruciform, neo-classical style gallery was opened in 1919. Four galleries branch off a central space capped with an oculus in a hemispherical dome. [4]
The building is registered with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (now Heritage New Zealand) as a Category I Historic Place with registration number 167, and has the highest possible listing under the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Act. [5]
The Māori name Te Whare o Rehua, gifted by local iwi in 1995, means House of Inspiration. [6]
In 1999 the Christchurch-based architecture firm Warren and Mahoney won a competition for the redevelopment of the Sarjeant Gallery. [7] This redevelopment included seismic strengthening, restoration and the addition of a north-facing extension which would not be visible from the iconic south-facing facade. [8]
In 2014 the entire Sarjeant collection and gallery shifted to new, temporary premises on Taupo Quay, in central Whanganui while the redevelopment took place. [9] Funds for the redevelopment came from central government, the gallery trust, private and public trusts, corporate sponsorship and the Whanganui Regional Council. [6] Warren and Mahoney co-designed the redevelopment with local iwi artist group Te Kāhui Toi o Tūpoho which consisted of expanding the existing gallery, building a new storage facility and a new wing. [10] [11] The new wing was dedicated to local Māori leader Archie Taiaroa and named Te Pātaka o Tā Te Atawhai Archie John Taiaroa. [10] [11] The re-opening took place on 9 November 2024. [6] [11] Writer Martin Edmond was commissioned to write a history of the gallery Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery: A Whanganui biography. [12] [13]
There are more than 8,300 artworks in the gallery's collection, spanning 400 years. [14] Initially focused on 19th and early 20th century British and European art but, given the expansive terms of the will of benefactor Henry Sarjeant, the collection now spans 16th century through to the 21st century. Among the collections are historic and modern works in all media – on paper, sculptures, pottery, ceramics and glass; bronze works; video art; and paintings by contemporary artists and old masters. International artists featured in the collection include Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Domenico Piola, Frank Brangwyn, Bernardino Poccetti, Gaspard Dughet, William Richmond, William Etty, Lelio Orsi, Frederick Goodall, and Augustus John. Among the New Zealand born or based artists featured in the collection are Colin McCahon, Ralph Hotere, Pat Hanly, Peter Nicholls, Charles Frederick Goldie, Gottfried Lindauer and Petrus van der Velden. [15]
The Sarjeant also has a major collection of the works of Whanganui-born painter Edith Collier, [16] and the most significant collection of works by Joan Grehan, also Whanganui-born. [17] Another prominent Northland artist featured in the gallery's collection is Kathleen Airini Vane, known for her landscapes of New Zealand. [18]
The majority of the collection is accessible online: Explore the Sarjeant Gallery collection
Since 1986, the Sarjeant Gallery has facilitated the Tylee Cottage Residency. [19] [20]
The gallery's first professional director was Gordon H. Brown, who took the role in 1974 and resigned in 1977. [21] Brown implemented a programme of changing exhibitions and made important contemporary acquisitions for the collection. [22] For most of the Sarjeant's contemporary history, the gallery was led by Brown's successor, Bill Milbank, who joined the organisation in 1975 and served as director from 1978 to 2006. [21] The Tylee Cottage Residency programme began during Milbank's tenure, [20] as did the ongoing series of dome installations, which officially began with artist Billy Apple's removal of the sculpture, The Wrestlers in 1979, [23] although there had been earlier installations. Greg Anderson took the role of director next, remaining for 15 years before departing for a role at Auckland Art Gallery in late 2022. [24] Former Te Uru director, Andrew Clifford, was appointed at the end of 2022, taking up the role in March 2023. [25]
The redeveloped gallery was selected in 2024 by National Geographic as a Top 20 "Best of the World" Cultural site. [10] [26]
Andrew Drummond is a New Zealand painter and sculptor. He attended University of Waterloo in Canada, graduating in 1976. He was a Frances Hodgkins Fellow in 1980.
Edith Marion Collier was an early modern painter from New Zealand. Brought up and educated in Whanganui, Collier received a thorough although conservative art education studying at the Technical School in Whanganui.
Martin Edmond is a New Zealand author and screenplay writer. He is the son of writer Lauris Edmond.
Sir Archie John Te Atawhai Taiaroa was a New Zealand Māori leader who affiliated to the Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Apa and Ngāti Maru iwi. He chaired the Whanganui River Maori Trust Board and Te Ohu Kaimoana, the latter for five years. He lived for a long time at Taumarunui, where he was a borough councillor and deputy mayor.
Richard Steward Rudd is an English-born New Zealand potter.
The Tylee Cottage Residency is an artist-in-residence programme facilitated by the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui, New Zealand. The scheme began in 1986 as a partnership between the Sarjeant Gallery, the Wanganui District Council and the QEII Arts Council of New Zealand. It was established by gallery director, Bill Milbank, QEII Arts Council adviser, John McCormack, and inaugural artist, Laurence Aberhart. It is currently managed by the Sarjeant Gallery and funded by the Whanganui District Council. Each year, the selected artist works full-time on their work for 2–12 months and resides in Tylee Cottage. Tylee Cottage was built in 1853 and is one of Whanganui's oldest homes.
Judith Ann Darragh is a New Zealand artist who uses found objects to create sculptural assemblages. She has also worked in paint and film. Darragh is represented in a number of public collections in New Zealand. In 2004, The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa held a major retrospective of her work titled Judy Darragh: So... You Made It?
Star Gossage is a New Zealand painter. In addition to painting, her practice includes theatre, film-making, poetry, and sculpture. While referencing European movements such as expressionism, impressionism and surrealism, her work incorporates Māori concepts such as whānau and whakapapa.
Mervyn John Williams is a New Zealand artist. He was an early exponent of Op art in New Zealand in the 1960s–70s. In 1990 he originated a style of illusionary abstract painting based on chiaroscuro, creating the impression of three-dimensional forms and textures on a flat canvas. Since 2009 he has used digital techniques in returning to an Op art style. Williams is almost unique amongst his contemporaries in New Zealand art for having embraced abstraction at the start of his career and exclusively throughout. His work is held in all major New Zealand public collections. A monograph by Edward Hanfling was published by Ron Sang in 2014 coinciding with a survey exhibition.
Julian Hooper is an Auckland-based artist. His art has been described as "an assemblage of metaphors, shapes and forms" that "details an eclectic and imaginative visual language that delves into his personal ancestry.". He was born in Auckland.
Lauren Lysaght is a New Zealand multidisciplinary artist. Her works are held in the collection of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and the Sarjeant Gallery. She has exhibited widely in New Zealand since the early 1980s.
Joanna Langford is a New Zealand artist, born in Gisborne, New Zealand.
Raymond Henry "Sandy" Adsett is a New Zealand visual artist and educator. He is acknowledged for championing the art of kōwhaiwhai painting, creating a context for the artform within the development of contemporary Māori art.
Janet Lesley Bayly is a New Zealand photographer, museum director and curator and is an authority on the works of Frances Hodgkins. Her photographic works are held in the permanent collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the Christchurch Art Gallery, and the Sarjeant Gallery.
Kathleen (Kitty) Airini Vane was a New Zealand painter who specialised in watercolours and tempera landscape paintings. Many of her paintings can now be found in art museums and galleries all over the world. Her works that remain in New Zealand are included in the collections of the internationally reknown Sarjeant Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Whangārei Museum, Tauranga Art Gallery, Reyburn House (Whangarei) and the New Zealand National Archives. Two portraits of Vane are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
William Handley Milbank was a New Zealand art curator and gallery director. He served as the director of the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui for 27 years, between 1978 and 2006.
Rona Ina Dyer was a New Zealand artist, working in wood-engraving, watercolours and oils. Her work was used to illustrate books and is also held in the permanent collections of Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui and Christchurch Art Gallery. She was also known for mural design and painting.
Lydia Larden was a British artist. Some of her watercolours are in the collection of the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui, New Zealand.
Annie Elizabeth Davis (1870–1943) was a New Zealand photographer.
Emily May Carlisle was a New Zealand photographer and artist.
39°55′52.38″S175°3′11.96″E / 39.9312167°S 175.0533222°E
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