As part of its 40th anniversary celebrations, the Gore gallery is running a series of small presentations entitled ‘‘Spotlight on the Permanent Collection’’.
These are designed to highlight gifts and bequests to the gallery’s collection and feature both common themes and individual artists.
The current trio of portrait paintings both portray and acknowledge the donor, New Zealand actor Sir Sam Neill.
Sir Sam has had a long career in film, featuring in films such as The Piano, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Jurassic Park.
Sir Sam, who has a winery in Central Otago and is based there, has been a longtime supporter of New Zealand and international artists.
Gallery curator Jim Geddes said the individual artists featured in the gallery’s current presentation included Alan Pearson, Michael Smither and Jeffrey Harris. Each has had an association with the Eastern Southland Gallery through past solo exhibitions, while the donor has been a quiet, but significant, supporter and benefactor for over 20 years.
The actor’s past involvement had included the co-ordination and co-curation of two successful exhibitions, National Anthem — Contemporary Art from China’’ in 2014, and ‘‘Available Light — International Photography’’ in 2015, Mr Geddes said.
Sir Sam’s most recent gift, Angela in South Canterbury by Jeffrey Harris, arrived just a month ago, while Portrait of Sam Neill, painted by Alan Pearson in London during the 1980s, and Michael Smither’s Portrait of Kirby Wright came as part of a group of artworks given in 2021.
A longtime friend of major artist and benefactor Ralph Hotere, Sir Sam used that opportunity to also give the first Hotere work he had bought to the gallery’s collection, Mr Geddes said in a statement.
That painting featured text by New Zealand Poet Laureate and Hotere collaborator Bill Manhire, who coincidentally acquired his very first library books from Gore’s Carnegie building when he was a child, Mr Geddes said.
An additional gift from that time was a major sculptural work by former University of Otago Frances Hodgkins Fellow Denis O’Connor.
The sculpture was being prepared for permanent display, having just returned from long-term loan at the National Maritime Museum in Auckland, he said.
Various gifts and bequests to the permanent collection over the last 40 years had not always involved artworks.
Endowment money had also been given specifically to fund the costs of the collection’s care and insurance, Mr Geddes said.
‘‘We have been very fortunate in this regard.’’
— APL
