Bronwyn Labrum reviews Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery: A biography by Martin Edmond for New Zealand Journal of History:
‘AS THE DIRECTOR of the neighbouring cultural institution, I was very keen to read this handsome volume, and because I was born and brought up in Whanganui, the offer to review was even more attractive. Massey University Press and the Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery have pulled out all the stops. It is delightful to read a soft cover book with a paper slipcover, hand-stitched spine, a ribbon to mark your page, weighty paper, and stunning full colour illustrations punctuating the text. The choice of author is inspired. Edmond lived in Ohakune as a child and Whanganui was his ‘big smoke’. With a background in theatre and screenwriting, his books include biographies of key New Zealand artists. Still, the weight of the authorized commission sometimes weighs heavily, as list of names, artworks, and important facts threaten to derail the sprightly narrative. It is also a clear choice to release this ‘biography’ of a building before the actual re-opening of the 2024 extension it celebrates. The last pages are about what is intended; it would have been useful to have released it with photographs of the finished building and the magnificent civic re-opening.
For historians, a detailed book about this significant gallery and the key ‘secondary’ town in which it is located, is a boon. I learned a lot, even as a ‘local’. The book has much to say about how towns and the elites within them develop and sustain cultural capital and the institutions that give expression to that. Given that the book has a whiggish structure, culminating with the re-opening, Edmond has managed to provide rich historical context, especially in the first chapter about how Whanganui came to be, and in the last chapters that focus on the campaign to extend the gallery. This is an intriguing entrée into what made Whanganui tick. It shows how Te Ao Māori has always been there trying to assert itself in the garrison town and later modern city, as well as in the narrower art and heritage circles.
Edmond makes no bones about the horrors of colonialism, war, and land acquisition. Unsurprisingly, the early movers and shakers in the gallery’s story benefitted from all three. Their aspirations and models for art, culture, and city amenities were imperial. In present-day Whanganui, you can see their traces everywhere in buildings (including grand houses within walking distance of the gallery), street names, and several public institutions. Once the town council enters the picture, the nuts and bolts of dealing with local bodies and their lack of focus on the gallery amongst other competing public amenities, is well told. Of course, the story alters with changing local body personnel. The details of the attempted cultural vandalism of Mayor Michael Laws from 2004–2010, which still affects the city and its arts champions, is a potent reminder that voting in local elections counts. Subsequent mayors have done much to champion the city’s arts and heritage, helping make the city and gallery drawcards for locals and visitors alike. Edmond shows how the gallery has also directly benefited from that later resurgence.
Another key story is professionalization, in terms of what is required for a gallery and the collections it houses. At its low point after World War II, the ossified gallery was popularly known as ‘The Morgue’, only partly because there was no heating. Professional staff were only appointed from the mid-1970s, as in other museums and galleries, and their impact is profound. That the regional (‘provincial’) galleries were ahead of the metropolitan institutions, is clear, and not what is usually expected. Te Whare o Rehua and these other galleries, which made key appointments in the late twentieth century, provide the heroes for New Zealand art history. They are all men, although this is not dwelt upon (women appear as funders, supporters, artists and only at the very end as curators and other staff). There is extensive discussion of both the design and construction of the 1912 building and its 2024 extension, which is of completely different materials and scope and joined imaginatively to the heritage building by a glass atrium. Edmond gives revealing insights into the politics and practices of art gallery building then and now.
The sympathies of the author are clear: he spends a lot of time on his favourite artists and works. He writes about key directors more than staff or audiences (lists of staff, images, as well as an index, are included in the back matter). The book was completed during the COVID 19 lockdowns and Edmond could not access all the sources he needed. Instead of footnotes there are bibliographical notes, consisting mainly of online sources with some key interviews. These difficulties make the achievement of such a thorough and readable book even more noteworthy.
An opportunity was overlooked, however, to put the gallery in its more immediate context. It stands in the central city cultural precinct of Pukenamu Queen’s Park, a beautifully laid out civic space which is unrivalled in this country. Philanthropists and citizens supported the Sarjeant Gallery which opened in 1919. The Alexander Museum stood from 1928 (its second site). The museum had its own bicultural, architect-designed modernist extension decades before the Sarjeant in 1968, and was renamed the Whanganui Regional Museum. The Alexander Heritage Library, designed to complement the Sarjeant Gallery, opened alongside in 1933. From 1955– 1960, the modernist War Memorial Centre was constructed opposite the museum. Barely a couple of references are made to these other equally stunning buildings and cultural institutions. Some instructive comparisons and contrasts could have been made. The author has relied on the Sarjeant’s telling of its own story in several key places and that perspective dominates.
This ‘Whanganui biography’ sits alongside Paul Diamond’s wonderful life of the infamous Mayor Charles Mackay, who played a pivotal role in the development of the Sarjeant and who had a huge impact on the booming, modern city. There are more stories to be told of how Whanganui became home to internationally significant cultural institutions and how that reflects and refracts wider historical developments. This is an excellent place to start.’
