A collection displayed

Press, 14 November 1984, Page 20

A collection displayed

John Coley is quick to point out that “Artfull” is a massed presentaion of the Robert McDougall Art Gallery’s permanent collection but not the only presentation.

"It would be impossible to put all of the gallery’s permanent collection on the walls,” the gallery director

says. In its 52 years the gallery has acquired more than 3000 works — oils, watercolours, sculptures, installations and prints. Almost 600 of these works are hung and stood in the gallery ready for the opening of “Artfull” on Sunday morning. The gallery decided to display its permanent works to give Christchurch people a chance to see some paintings that have been stored for several years. Because not all of the Cermanent collection could e shown, it was decided to hang all the oils, with the exception of those awaiting conservation treatment. Also on show will be about 250 watercolours and some of the gallery’s sculpture and glass pieces. Both the city galleries in Auckland and Dunedin have shown massed presentations from their collections. Auckland’s was called “Artichoke” and Dunedin’s “Edge to Edge.” When the Christchurch gallery decided on the exhibition it opted for the name “Letting It All Hang Out.” The name was changed to “Artfull” when that title was suggested by journalist Bruce Scott.

Mr Scott will hang the final painting to be put up for the exhibition as part of the opening on Sunday. Care has been taken with hanging the paintings so that each series of works on a wall is balanced, Mr Coley says. “It is not simply

a case of stick up as many as we can. There has to be a design and aesthetic arrangement” The paintings have been divided into broad sections with British and European paintings in the northern loop of the gallery and New

Zealand, traditional and contemporary works in another wing. The paintings include works from the first acquistions made by the gallery and some of the most recent purchases. The Robert McDougall’s

collection had its beginnings in works given by the Canterbury Society of Arts and from the James Jamieson collection. A few additions were made in the 1930 s and the 1940 s boosted by bequests from several people. The collection grew slowly through the 1950 s and 1960 s until funding and policy changes made an expansion possible in the 19705. Although not large by international standards, the collection consists of 3300 plus works, some of which are on indefinite loan to council buildings.

Several of these have been claimed back for the exhibition, Mr Coley says. Among the paintings on show is “The Pleasure Garden” by Frances Hodgkins, which was probably the catalyst for today’s watercolour collection.

The painting was one of six by the artist, sent to New Zealand in 1948 at the request of the Society of Arts. Although £2OO had been set aside to buy one of the paintings all were deemed not suitable for the gallery to show. The subsequent controversary divided Christchurch’s art’s society. The painting “The PLeasure Garden” was eventually accepted for the gallery’s collection in 1951. Also exhibited is “Summer Morn,” donated by Rosa Satwell. The model for the nude woman in the painting later asked the gallery to remove the painting from display as public exhibition of the work was an embarrassment to her.

The gallery did so, not exhibiting the work until the 1970 s when the embarrassed model had died.

Mounting the paintings on the gallery walls has been a major task that has kept exhibitions officer Roger Smith busy for the last month. Each of the paintings has been brought from the basement up, the stairs — the gallery has no lift — positioned, holes drilled and the painting hung. Mr Coley says no special security measures have been taken for the exhibition although most of the dozen or so paintings in the collection that are worth more than 560,000 will be on show.

Preparing a massed presentation had demonstrated the size of the gallery’s collection and its inability to display it all at once, Mr Coley says. “We would love to put more of it on the walls more often but with touring exhibitions and other shows we simply have not got the space.” One painting that will be be on show is a large work that usually hangs in the centre gallery. It is too large to get down the stairs' into storage. “Artfull” will be officially opened on Sunday morning with a fundraising chamagne luncheon. The exhibition will run until the end of January. John Coley and gallery staff are hoping the exhibition will be attraction enough to .bring a record 130,000 visitors to the gal-' lery for the year.