50 years of Aratoi in 5 objects

In the arts, there is no place for arrogance….  Dr Morvyn (Tim) Williams, First Patron, Wairarapa Arts Centre  

Aratoi is our taonga. - Dame Robin White, Honorary Patron of Aratoi

A history of a museum is visible through its collection, and these five works alone – among the 4,000 in the museum’s care – speak volumes.

50/Fifty – 50 years of Aratoi, the current exhibition traces 1969-2019, decade by decade. Curated by Collection Manager Bronwyn Reid, Aratoi is also publishing 50 years in 50 objects. The fully illustrated book, with contributions by Bronwyn Reid, Gregory O’Brien, Elizabeth Bisley, Jill Trevelyan, Sian van Dyk, and edited by Gregory O’Brien and Lydia Wevers, will be launched on 11 October, 5.30pm. All invited.

1969 – 1979

Gottfried Lindauer (1839 – 1926), Hoani Te Rangitakaiwaho (1880), oil on canvas. Gift of Miriama Morris of Pāpāwai. Collection of Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History. Hoani Te Rangitakaiwaho, like his half-brother Manihera, was a rangitira of Ngāti Moe of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa. The artwork is one of five paintings of Wairarapa tīpuna (ancestors) by Gottfried Lindauer in the Aratoi collection. From its inception, the Arts Centre was considered a place to safeguard and care for Taonga Māori.

2009 – 2019

Elizabeth Thomson (b. 1955), Cellular Memory II (2017), glass spheres, optically clear epoxy resin, aqueous isolation, cast vinyl film. Collection of Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History

Cellular Memory II was first exhibited in the survey exhibition of Elizabeth Thomson’s work at Aratoi in summer 2017-18. Elizabeth Thomson has been actively part of the Aratoi whānau over the past few years, a time of unprecedented generosity among benefactors of contemporary art: since 2016, donations to the Aratoi collection have tripled. 

1990 – 1999

Colin McCahon (1919 – 1987), Anne (1942-43), gouache and charcoal on paper,

Norman Prior Bequest. Collection of Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History. The portrait is of Colin McCahon’s wife, the artist Anne Hamblett. Anne is an unfinished work and McCahon’s painting Sheds and scaffolding, Mapua in found on the reverse of this work.

1980 – 1989

Pat Hanly (1932 – 2004), Rainbow over Mt Eden (1972), drypoint / screenprint,

Norman Prior Bequest. Collection of Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History.  

Mount Eden was Hanly’s equivalent of the Biblical Garden of Eden – a place of physical and spiritual growth. The Prior bequest ensured that many important works of contemporary art came into the collection.

2000 – 2009

Harry Watson (b. 1965), Cape Turn and be Damned (2013), mixed media, commissioned by Friends of Aratoi. Collection of Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History.  

Harry Watson’s painted oak carving Cape Turn and be Damned takes its title from a sailors’ nickname for Cape Palliser. Harry Watson, a Wairarapa-based artist, features in the Arts on Tour video, part of the exhibition.

The exhibition continues until 10 November. Open daily, 10 – 4pm, Aratoi is located at 12 Bruce St, Masterton. Free entry.