Work Of Art: What Goes Into Bringing Historic Art To Tāmaki Makaurau?

With work from some of the world’s most famous painters coming to Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki this June for new exhibition A Century Of Modern Art, co-ordinating curator Dr Sophie Matthiesson talks to Emma Gleason about what makes this show so special.

Monet, Degas, van Gogh and Renoir are bucket-list artists for international art curators like Sophie Matthiesson, and to have them all in one show, two years in the making, is something she can’t wait to share with the public. “People are really intrigued to see the show,” she says, which has come all the way from Ohio.

The reputation of the Toledo Museum of Art’s holdings precedes it. Established in 1901, it boasts hugely significant work in its 25,000-strong collection, and some of the best will be at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki for four months for A Century Of Modern Art. “It’s a roll call of great names, European and American artists, from Impressionism through to Robert Rauschenberg and pop art,” says Sophie. “It could be decades before Toledo ever travels their modern collection again.”

The show’s all painting, and focusing on one medium clarifies the understanding of how generations of artists internalise, embellish and change art movements and schools of thought. “We see that process of reflection going on right through the show, even towards the very, very end,” she explains, where the art of the 1960s reveals the aftereffects of Cubism. “By the time you get to the eighth room, the last room, you start to see a bit of a crescendo as various waves of avant-gardes and new artistic movements are being absorbed by next generations.” Though the earliest piece is by Jean-François Millet from 1846, 1872 is where things “kick-off date-wise” with Impressionism.

“That’s really the moment that people associate with modernity. Railways, electric light, gas light, industrialisation, new wealth, urbanisation, all those things kind of happened at the same time. Impressionist painting is the child of all of that.”

For artists, that meant new pigments, travelling by train to the countryside to paint, and growing markets for their work.

“We start at that modern moment, and then we really look at the chain reaction of Impressionism”, with artists like Gauguin, van Gogh and Cezanne, who took modern art in “very powerful and separate directions” and the rise of the avant-garde.

“Lots of the artists were striking off on their own, in small movements, and there was a splintering effect.” From there, the show expands beyond the Paris scene, with German Expressionism, “metaphysical artists” like Giorgio Morandi, Bauhaus, Orphism, Russian Constructivists, Abstract Expressionists and Minimalists. “As you can imagine, it keeps spiralling out.”

Works from the likes of Braque and Picasso show “the complete transformation of the human figure” and how Cubist forms were a metaphor for the “fragmentation of confidence” caused by World War I. “There’s a breakdown of authority. Old-fashioned, classical ways of showing the body are no longer appropriate, and nobody has confidence in institutions or the powerful autonomous self anymore.”

The exhibition is only possible because the Toledo Art Museum is undergoing an expansion. “That releases some of their prize works, which would normally never travel together to a single destination,” she explains. “The alternative was for these things to go into storage.” Loaning the artwork helps offset the cost of the renovation and building. A common convention, though difficult to pull off, it’s a win-win, raising an institution’s profile and giving a wider audience access to the pieces. “It’s one of those things where the collection keeps working for you.”

Securing a loan of this calibre often comes down to timing and availability, and Auckland Art Gallery was “very lucky” to have a slot available when the offer from Toledo came through. The whole process started around two years ago. “It feels quick in terms of an institutional time frame.” Working with Toledo has been a “really smooth” process. “We pass everything by them, every design that we do, every publication. The artwork and the couriers who travel with it began arriving in the second half of May. “That’s when it becomes face-to-face.”

The unboxing process is staggered, with the contents needing acclimatisation to the conditions of their new location. “They’ll sit for a couple of days, at least 24 hours, often more, before they get unpacked,” Sophie explains, and it’s a very slow process. “A conservator, at our end, and the courier have to basically go over work with a fine-tooth comb - magnifying glass, camera, etc - and compare its condition with the condition reports it left with.” It’s backbreaking work, as staff with headlamps and equipment bend over tables, inspecting the paintings (and their frames) centimetre by centimetre. “It all has to be documented and witnessed by both parties.”

Then things go up in the gallery, where you can expect wonderfully colourful walls and atmospheric lighting. “We’re really going to be highlighting the fact that this is 57 treasures.” She leaves the technical stuff to the hanging teams, and her focus is on the wall texts, labels and any last-minute proofing (they do a lot of proofing), balancing that with the needs of the editorial publishing, material like brochures and children’s guides.

Sophie’s penned an article for the show explaining the significance and context of some key paintings, and it builds on the narrative arc conceived by Erin Corrales Diaz, curator of American Art at Toledo Art Museum, who’ll be visiting Tāmaki Makaurau for the exhibition. “It’s always great to see the experts from the lending institution, because by the time you meet them, you’ve read so much about their works of art, written so much about their works of art, that you’ve internalised their collection, and so you feel like you have this wonderful thing in common.”

The two will be in discussion for the Curators in Conversations event on June 7, part of the constellation of events to support the exhibition. “Our Public Programme team and our Members team have put together some fantastic programmes,” she says. “And it’s a great treat when you can attend one of these events then go up and look at the real thing.”

Though there are some big names across the 57 significant paintings, the exhibition is quite contained. “I think an hour would be enough first time round.” It will be presented alongside the Gallery’s own “close-to-our-hearts” collection The Robertson Gift: Paths through Modernity to enrich the narrative themes and “take the conversation further”, and A Century of Modern Art opens to the public on June 7.

“It’s mind-boggling to think of how many iconic works there will be in the building,” she says. “I think it’s great for Auckland.”

A Century of Modern Art runs from June 7 to September 28. To find out more, visit Aucklandartgallery.com/ACOMA

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