Fletcher's artistic tunnel vision pays off

Peter Shaw, the curator of the Fletcher Trust Collection, part of which is on show in the tunnel under Great South Rd which joins two Fletcher offices. Photo / Paul Estcourt

A prosaic tunnel under Great South Rd, between two Fletcher buildings at Penrose has become an art gallery.

Peter Shaw, the Fletcher Trust Collection curator since 1991, has used both sides of its blank, stark white walls to showcase a taste of one of this country's most important painting collections.

This high-security thoroughfare is entered between Fletcher House at 810 Great South Rd where Fletcher Building executives work, and the neighbouring separate Jack Smith House where Fletcher Construction is headquartered.

A Centennial Exhibition, Treasures from The Fletcher Trust Collection was curated to celebrate the first 100 years of Fletcher, founded in Dunedin by Sir James Fletcher I in 1909.

A tour of that collection starts above-ground with the staff's most-loved painting: Don Binney's 1.8m x 1.5m oil and acrylic on canvas Pacific Frigate Bird II in Fletcher House.

That opens the swipe-card-access-only descent to a set of stairs underground in a separate building, into the tunnel whose main purpose is to enable staff from various parts of the big site to travel safely between carparks and buildings either side of Great South Rd. For a few weeks, that tunnel has become a quiet, serene, florescent-glowing powerhouse of precious paintings.

Shaw wanted to shock from the start, "give people a sock between the eyes", so the going down is marked by Miranda Parkes' brightly coloured and bizarrely creased canvas, Monster.

Then, the traditional takes over as Shaw honours the vision of the late Sir James Fletcher II and close business partner/colleague George Fraser. Together, they started the art aggregation which now stands at more than 600 paintings but also has an extensive ceramic collection. The tunnel tour moves past works by J.B.C. Hoyte, paying tribute to the first five paintings in the collection, all from that colonial watercolourist.

"These were exhibited in Fletcher's boardroom around 1962, displacing pictures of racehorses, so legend has it," Shaw says, gesturing towards the Hoytes.

As the tunnel slopes down under the road, the collection moves on to a series of paintings closely associated with Fletcher including William Sutton's portrait of Sir James II and Richard McWhannell's 1996 portrait of Hugh Fletcher with Colin McCahon's July Waterfall hanging on the wall of his office. In a twist, the original of that same McCahon in that painting stands like a massive black full-stop at the southern end of the tunnel.

A collection of kiwiana includes Dick Frizzell's amusing Waikato Landscape 1985 (acrylic on board) John Tole's cubist Through the Trees 1953 (oil on canvas) and Peter Siddell's remarkable Harbour Shadow 1984 (acrylic on board). Looming at the end is McCahon's movingly massive 1.1m x 1.4m July Waterfall, juxtaposed by Frizzell's energetic Woodchopper 1983 (enamel on board).

"Friends of Te Papa have been through. Fletcher Construction held a function here. Fletcher retirees have been in and Fletcher Building is having a function here in the New Year," says Shaw.

The tunnel is but a taste of the painting collection.

On level six of Fletcher House where divisional chief executives have offices, contemporary paintings dominate. Not all is modern.

Ex-Fletcher Building chief executive Ralph Waters, now chairman, treasured the tiny Colin McCahon on a wall of his office during his occupation at Fletcher House. But a ladder was leaned up against the precious piece when a light bulb was being changed and dented the work. Shaw admits events like this are rare but somewhat unavoidable and that restoration of that work was successful.

Jonathan Ling, Fletcher chief executive, has Don Binney's Southern Journey and Nugent Welch's Land's Breeze on his wall.

Chris Ellis, chief executive of Fletcher's building products division, has Petrus van der Velden's Otira River on the wall of his office but Shaw disputes that this is not appreciated, that it could be seen as too gloomy, dark and depressing.

The trust's paintings are spread throughout the country, some on loan to Government House in Auckland and Wellington, others are at various art galleries.

Paintings of Rita Angus were loaned for that prominent national exhibition and Shaw said that unlike some collectors who withdrew their paintings when the exhibition closed in Wellington, the trust's paintings remained for the complete show. The trust's Angus collection includes Dona Nobis Pacem (Vaughan Williams), the artist's single largest work, which hung behind Waters' desk for some years and was appreciated by him.

In 2001, Shaw curated The Colonial View, an exhibition of historic watercolours from the collection.

The trust's painting collection is so extensive that even displays or tours of sub-sets are such significant events in themselves that they breed entire card collections or books: a card set has been published for Treasures from The Fletcher Trust Collection and a substantial and fascinating hard-cover 108-page book has been produced for Te Huringa/Turning Points, Pakeha Colonisation & Maori Empowerment.

That is the most significant current touring part of the collection and includes paintings from Sarjeant Gallery/Te Whare O Rehua Whanganui.

It opened in April 2006 at Whanganui and does not close until it hits Whangarei in May 2010. Sadly, it will never be in Auckland due, Shaw said, to the much-reduced display space at the Auckland City Art Gallery.

Hastings, Gisborne, Wellington, Rotorua, Tauranga, Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin have all enjoyed this exhibition introduced by the Fletcher Trust's chairman and family member Angus Fletcher as being inspired by Shaw who worked with co-curator Dr Jo Diamond. Shaw says the exhibition is highly controversial. Artists brought their own cultural baggage to their subject matter, innocently or not, and many of the paintings have their origins in deep contentions, particularly over land and the fallout from colonialism.

Diamond and Shaw said the exhibition provided a turning point in our ability to view art critically and to give emphasis to the Maori points of view without excluding the Pakeha.

C.F. Goldie's Kapi Kapi and Wiripine Ninia - A Ngatiawa Chieftainess, McCahon's A Song for Rua, Prophet, Shane Cotton's The Plant and Ralph Hotere's Dawn Water Poem I are in this exhibition.

A book was also published for Representation and Reaction, Modernism and the New Zealand Landscape Tradition 1956-1977, an exhibition of 50 paintings from the trust, Kelliher Trust, DB Breweries and the Sarjeant Gallery.

Today, Shaw continues to add to the trust's painting collection, whether buying at auction or privately.

"The trust's collection has been very carefully nurtured over many years. Its mission statement is that it should be the finest examples of a period of an artist's work and the most recent additions have been two major historic paintings of considerable worth. The Fletcher Trust's intention is that its paintings, which constitute a unique record of the whole history of New Zealand art, should be seen by as many New Zealanders as possible."

* Great works of art

The Fletcher Trust Collection comprises paintings and ceramics.

It contains more than 850 works from 300 artists.

Collection consists of New Zealand art only.

Stretches from colonial to emerging artists.

More information is at www.fletchercollection.co.nz.