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Pictures Collection

J.J. Merrett 1816-54 Portrait of two Maoris (1850) 4,326/a

The Pictures Collection comprises over 12,000 works of art relating to New Zealand and the Pacific, dating from the eighteenth century and including the work of contemporary artists. The 450 "pictures" which comprised Dr Thomas Morland Hocken's collection when the library opened in 1910 were chosen as illustrative material and, like other parts of his library were intended for use by geographers, ethnologists and natural scientists. The legacy of this concept of the pictorial and its uses is found in the naming of the Hocken collection, which remains a pictorial, rather than an art, or fine arts collection to the present day.

In contrast to this notion of art as information, the Mona Magarite Edgar collection of 493 paintings and sculpture gifted in 1961 provides a snapshot of modernist art practice in post-war New Zealand. Charles Brasch's gift of 448 paintings and drawings in 1973 and Rodney Kennedy's bequest of a further 177 works in 1989 reveal much about the business of collecting New Zealand art in Dunedin in the modern period. Endowment funds and gifts continue to provide the means to grow the pictorial collections, and material is actively sought which falls within its current scope. While works which deepen understanding of existing holdings are selectively added to the collection, paintings and mixed media works by some New Zealand artists who are emerging as significant figures on the contemporary scene who have not been collected in the past are also being acquired.

Research visits to the collection are actively encouraged, with groups from secondary and tertiary institutions able to make study visits by arrangement. Even casual visitors have the opportunity to take a supervised tour through the storage areas and look at paintings "on the racks", as well as being able to view the extensive works on paper collection.

In addition to mounting exhibitions and making the collection available for viewing, staff undertake identifications of privately owned works which are brought into the institution, and answer telephone and written enquiries about New Zealand artists. The Pictorial Collections are open from 9.30am until 5pm weekdays, and the Exhibition Gallery is also open during those times and additionally at weekends.

Last revised; 31 January, 2006