From the College Collection: A Selection of Works from the Wellington College of Education Art Collection
Kenneth Quinn
Jeanne Macaskill
Doreen Blumhardt
Louise Henderson
Tanya Ashken
Roger Brittain
Darryl Walker
Bernard Leach
Margaret Higgs
Joan Rout
curated by Sophie Thorn
13 October – 21 December 2017
This small selection, drawn from the 394 works of art and craft that made up the Wellington College of Education Art Collection, was brought together to complement and contextualise Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection’s newest acquisition, What Remains, a commissioned series by writer Anna Sanderson, photographer Gavin Hipkins and designer Philip Kelly that captures a set of fleeting impressions of the campus at Karori, which was home to the College between 1969 and 2016 (having merged with Victoria University in 2004 to become the Faculty of Education in 2005). These items demonstrate the range of that collection: from documentary photographs, to ceramics, sculpture, and painting. Made by a mix of known and less well-known artists and craftspeople, some with close ties to the College, they are treasured residue of a particular climate of educational creativity that was fostered there, triggering collective memories of the people who passed through the institution as staff and students.
This exhibition was staged concurrently with What Remains, The Karori Commission, Future Islands: The New Zealand Exhibition at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, and Apparitions.
Installation view, From the College Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2017. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Tanya Ashken, Sea Creatures, 1971, five part mobile, shaped duralumin sheeting, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, previously Wellington College of Education Art Collection, gifted in 1971 by the ‘The Renaissance Singers of Wellington’, accessioned 2009. Installation view, From the College Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2017. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Tanya Ashken, Sea Creatures (detail), 1971, five part mobile, shaped duralumin sheeting, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, previously Wellington College of Education Art Collection, gifted in 1971 by the ‘The Renaissance Singers of Wellington’, accessioned 2009. Installation view, From the College Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2017. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Installation view, From the College Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2017. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Kenneth Quinn, Portraits of Eminent New Zealanders, 42 silver gelatin prints, mounted and framed, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, accessioned 2009, formerly Wellington College of Education Art Collection, purchased 1987. Installation view, From the College Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2017. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Kenneth Quinn, Portraits of Eminent New Zealanders, 42 silver gelatin prints, mounted and framed, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, accessioned 2009, formerly Wellington College of Education Art Collection, purchased 1987. Installation view, From the College Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2017. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Installation view, From the College Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2017. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Jeanne Macaskill, Untitled, 1979, mixed media on board, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, accessioned 2009, formerly Wellington College of Education Art Collection, purchased 1979. Installation view, From the College Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2017. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Jeanne Macaskill, Untitled, 1979, mixed media on board, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, accessioned 2009, formerly Wellington College of Education Art Collection, purchased 1979. Installation view, From the College Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2017. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Installation view, From the College Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2017. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Installation view, From the College Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2017. Photo: Shaun Matthews
Doreen Blumhardt, Thrown stoneware plate, c.1970, Wellington College of Education Ceramics Collection. Installation view, From the College Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2017. Photo: Shaun Matthews