End of an era on block

By LINDA HERRICK

An auction at Webb's next Wednesday marks the end of an era - the last stage in the selling of the DB Breweries Art Collection. The once-huge number of mainly landscape paintings gathered by DB founder Sir Henry Kelliher has been gradually whittled down and sold off as the nature of pubs and the DB company has changed.

Kelliher established the Kelliher Art Awards, which ran from 1956 to 1977, and in his day art was used to elevate the tone of the hotels, decorating the lounges, hallways and reception areas.

But when was the last time you stayed in a hotel that had original art on its walls, instead of the generic "art" bought in bulk for the bland, globalised chains that dominate today's market?

"As the pubs have progressively closed down, what had been a small problem of storage became a big problem," explains Webb's general manager, Hamish Coney.

Hence the sale of the last 85 works, which includes four New Zealand landscapes by Australian artist Ernest Buckmaster, who frequently judged the Kelliher, four by Peter McIntyre, six by Kelliher himself, four murals by John Holmwood, and more.

An exciting addition to the auction is the collection of 16 commissioned carved Maori heads and figures - standing at nearly 2m - by Bryan McCurrach, who was taught by Hone and Pine Taiapa, the latter of whom supervised the building of the carved house at Waitangi.

McCurrach used portraits by Lindauer and Goldie as models for his kauri heads and carved his figures in totara.

The paintings are an exercise in an imagined and idealised past, says Coney. "It's been interesting watching people come through the viewings. There's a real connection with a New Zealand of a bygone era.

"In some cases they are more than 40 years old, so there is a sense of a postwar New Zealand of the imagination. It's an ideal view of how we saw ourselves in those times. It's quite nostalgic. The paintings remind a lot of people of what they grew up with, a country that was well-fed, happy, safe. It's not an unpleasant feeling, I have to say."

The sale starts next Wednesday at 6.30pm.