The Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui at Pukenamu, Queen's Park Whanganui is currently closed for redevelopment. The temporary premises at Sarjeant on the Quay, 38 Taupo Quay currently house the Sarjeant Collection, and all exhibitions and events. The Sarjeant Gallery is a regional art museum with a collection of international and New Zealand art.
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." [1] 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. [1] 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. [2]
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. [3]
There are more than 8,300 artworks in the gallery's collection, spanning 400 years. [4] 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. [5]
The Sarjeant also has a major collection of the works of Whanganui-born painter Edith Collier, [6] and the most significant collection of works by Joan Grehan, also Whanganui-born. [7]
The majority of the collection is accessible online: Explore the Sarjeant Gallery collection
Since 1986, the Sarjeant Gallery has facilitated the Tylee Cottage Residency. [8] [9]
The Christchurch-based architecture firm Warren and Mahoney won a competition for the redevelopment of the Sarjeant Gallery in 1999. [10] This redevelopment includes seismic strengthening, restoration and the addition of a north-facing extension which will not be visible from the iconic south-facing facade. [11]
In 2014, as fundraising for the redevelopment continued, the entire Sarjeant collection and gallery shifted to new, temporary premises on Taupo Quay, in central Whanganui where the exhibitions program is ongoing. [12]
The gallery's first professional director was Gordon H. Brown, who took the role in 1974 and resigned in 1977. [13] Brown implemented a programme of changing exhibitions and made important contemporary acquisitions for the collection. [14] 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. [13] The Tylee Cottage Residency programme began during Milbank's tenure, [9] as did the ongoing series of dome installations, which officially began with artist Billy Apple's removal of the sculpture, The Wrestlers in 1979, [15] 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. [16] Former Te Uru director, Andrew Clifford, was appointed at the end of 2022, taking up the role in March 2023. [17]
Whanganui, also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whanganui is the 19th most-populous urban area in New Zealand and the second-most-populous in Manawatū-Whanganui, with a population of 42,800 as of June 2023.
Edith Marion Collier was an early modern painter from New Zealand. Brought up and educated in Wanganui, Edith received a thorough although conservative art education studying at the Technical School in Whanganui. At the age of 27 Edith then travelled to Britain in 1913 and studied at the St John's Wood School of Art in London and toured throughout the United Kingdom, executing works in St. Ives, Cornwall; Glasgow Scotland; Bonmahn, Southern Ireland among others. Through her works, Edith explored the media of oil paint, watercolour, printmaking and pencil drawing. After spending almost a decade receiving professional artistic training, Edith returned to provincial Whanganui where her works were met with criticism as a result of her assimilation into the radical innovations of British modernism and New Zealand's dissimilar art scene at the time. For this reason, her work is largely unknown at home and overseas.
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 Wanganui 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.
Joan Grehan was a New Zealand artist.
Emily Valentine Bullock is a New Zealand artist based in Sydney, Australia. Her work is in the permanent collection of Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui, New Zealand.
Cobi Cockburn is an Australian glass artist. Her works are held in the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Palm Springs Art Museum and the Corning Museum of Glass, New York.
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.
Kate Fitzharris is a New Zealand ceramicist. She is mostly known for her doll-like figures, and although working primarily in ceramics, also incorporates found materials. She has won three Portage Ceramic Merit Awards, and has held the Doris Lusk Residency, the Tylee Cottage Residency and a residency at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Japan.
Erica van Zon is an artist from New Zealand.
Susan Fletcher Crawford ARE was a Scottish artist and printmaker, best known for her topographical etchings of Glasgow, the Scottish Highlands and other Scottish cities. Crawford was Teacher of Etching at the Glasgow School of Art between 1894 and 1917 and taught a number of artists who would become associated with the Etching Revival.
Roberta Thornley is a New Zealand photographer. Her work is in the permanent collections of Christchurch Art Gallery and the Sarjeant Gallery.
Miranda Parkes is a New Zealand painter and multi media artist based in Christchurch, New Zealand. Parkes' works are held in the collections of the Sarjeant Gallery and the Arts House Trust.
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.
39°55′52.38″S175°3′11.96″E / 39.9312167°S 175.0533222°E
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