Book review: Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery - a Whanganui biography

The book Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery - a Whanganui biography with the west wing extension in the background. Martin Edmond's latest book coincides with the opening of the gallery on November 9.

OPINION

Tackling both Whanganui history and sympathetically unfolding the story of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery has been a triumph for author Martin Edmond in his latest book Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery - a Whanganui biography.

Edmond has left no stone unturned in detailing a timeline from when “the land upon which Whanganui city is built rose up from under the sea a million years ago”, through to early Polynesian navigation, Abel Tasman’s discovery, the interaction between Māori and Pākehā at Whanganui in 1831, to the tender for the erection of the Sarjeant Gallery in April 1917.

Following the beginnings, the bequest and the building, Edmond tells of the mayor and the honorary curator, the Empire and after, the traditionalists, the professional era, interregnum and the extension.

This is a huge year for Whanganui’s century-old Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery. It has been closed for many years for the earthquake strengthening of its handsome heritage building on the maunga Pukenamu above the CBD and the construction of the glamorous new wing behind it.

Its reopening sets the Sarjeant up to once again be the cultural force it was for so many years under legendary director Bill Milbank.

How many layers of time are there to the Sarjeant? Martin Edmond asks.

“The 60 million-year-old Ōamaru limestone, the 2 million-year-old sandhill the gallery stands upon, the hundred-year-old heritage building, the brand new structure behind, with its constitutive and decorative elements which go deep into the Māori and the Polynesian past - all of this will make a magnificent theatre for the showing of historical and contemporary art,” he said.

Richly illustrated with historic and more recent photographs, as well as with many of the key works from the Sarjeant’s rich, varied and nationally important collection, this handsome book is designed by award-winning design studio Area Design.

It goes on sale on November 7. Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery reopens to the public on Saturday, November 9. Printed on art paper, the book is 376 pages, a good read and a reference work that should be in every home in Whanganui.

This book places the gallery at the heart of the story of Whanganui and marks its triumphal reopening.

About the author

Martin Edmond is an award-winning writer, screenwriter and poet. His books include The Autobiography of My Father; The Resurrection of Philip Clairmont; Chronicle of the Unsung; Luca Antara: Passages in Search of Australia; Waimarino County (and other excursions); The Supply Party; Dark Night: Walking With McCahon; Battarbee & Namatjira; The Dreaming Land; The Expatriates; Isinglass; and Bus Stops on the Moon: Red Mole Days 1974–1980. Edmond received a Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in 2013. He lives in Australia and Japan.

Details: Published by Massey University Press, RRP $65.