Poolside Gossip, one of the most famous images by American high-society photographer Slim Aarons, whose work was subject of Webb's auction house refunds. Photo / Slim Aarons / Getty Images
Poolside Gossip, one of the most famous images by American high-society photographer Slim Aarons, whose work was subject of Webb's auction house refunds. Photo / Slim Aarons / Getty Images
Five exclusive 2024 arts interviews and investigations by Herald Premium Lifestyle senior writer Kim Knight.
From the mission to save Colin McCahon’s legacy to the female artists finally getting recognition on gallery walls and auction floors, along with a historic treasure caught up in the closure of Chateau Tongariro, thisis some of the year’s must-read visual arts reportage.
Saving Colin McCahon: Up to $1.5m needed to fix failing database and find lost paintings
The Colin McCahon digital archive was created before Facebook, Instagram or even Google. It contains records for more than 1800 artworks, but the original technology is obsolete. No new material can be added and, before very recent remedial work, the database was at risk of complete collapse.
Peter Carr and Finn McCahon-Jones are the eldest surviving grandsons of the country’s most famous contemporary artist and key members of Colin McCahon Trust which, in November, launched a $1m-plus fundraising project aimed at preserving a cultural legacy – and rediscovering “missing” paintings.
Webb’s auction house to refund buyers of Slim Aarons prints sourced from unlicensed websites
It’s one of the most sought-after pool views in the country – but are all Slim Aarons prints created equal? An investigation into sales of Poolside Gossip, one of the high-society photographer’s most famous images, ended in August with an Auckland auction house offering refunds for reproduction prints.
“We have identified we sold reproductions on behalf of vendors without always understanding their provenance,” Webb’s managing director Paul Evans said in a statement. “We have identified the purchasers of works that were sourced from unlicensed sites and are in the process of contacting them to offer full refunds.”
Buying art? Why these female NZ artists are your best investment
Has equality finally come for the country’s forgotten female artist? In August, a blockbuster women’s art exhibition that went well beyond Rita Angus and Frances Hodgkins opened at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and, on the auction floor, the hammer was falling on new record prices.
International Arts Centre director Richard Thomson admits when two staffers approached him with plans for a women-only auction, he was dubious.
“My initial thought was, ‘Well, that’s great, but how are we going to get those works without affecting the rest of the business?’ But, as it turned out, it was a very, very good move.”
A nationally significant painting of the famed White Terraces is in an “active state of deterioration” in the shuttered Chateau Tongariro – and the Government has ruled out paying to save it. In March, a response to an Official Information Act request to the Department of Conservation revealed a worst-case scenario for an abandoned art treasure.
An enormous oil painting of the White Terraces, painted more than 100 years ago by German artist Carl Kahler (best known for a portrait of cats that sold for $1.3 million at Sotheby’s, New York), was said to be deteriorating in the shuttered Chateau.
When the Chateau Tongariro was closed, the items left behind included an historic painting of the famed White Terraces.
After James Wallace’s sex convictions: What next for Pah Homestead and $50m art collection?
Anita Totha is the director of the Arts House Trust, the new owner of the art collection started by convicted sex offender James Wallace. In her first major interview, she talked about how to move forward from a tainted past – and what’s next for the gallery at Auckland’s Pah Homestead.
“You can’t erase the past,” says Totha. “But how do you move forward so that we can make sure that artists and visual culture in Aotearoa [are] supported?”
