Gallery takes fresh look at old favourites

From the bustling port of Lyttelton to a wintery Dutch funeral, a new Christchurch Art Gallery exhibition uncovers the stories behind some of the Gallery’s most famous and best-loved paintings.

Opening tomorrow, Closer features a total of 10 works and takes a fresh look at some old favourites within the Gallery’s collection, featuring new insights about the paintings presented via video, audio and photographs.

Petrus van der Velden, The Dutch Funeral, 1875. Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, gift of Henry Charles Drury van Asch, 1932.

Senior curator Lara Strongman says the show lets audiences go behind the scenes on some of the city’s most significant works of art.

“Closer is an opportunity for residents and visitors alike to learn the back-story behind some of Christchurch’s best-loved art,” says Strongman.

“We’ve looked at the works with fresh eyes, asking ourselves the sorts of questions people might like to know.

“For example, who were the refugees in Frances Hodgkins’s Unshatterable? Why does the young woman in the Wizard’s Garden look so troubled? And what was Gerrit Dou’s seventeenth-century Physician peering at in the glass flask?

“Some of the findings have shed new—and sometimes surprising—light on what was previously quite mysterious,” adds Strongman.

“Our hope is that people find it quite fascinating and come away with some new stories about their old favourites.”

Closer is on display at Christchurch Art Gallery from tomorrow until 26 August 2018. Entry is free.