Woollaston painting gifted to Aratoi

PRIME Minister Helen Clark yesterday presented a significant New Zealand painting to the people of Wairarapa.
The Toss Woollaston work, simply titled Landscape, is thought to date from around 1970. Purchased by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, it has been hung until now in the New Zealand Embassy in Brussels.
The oil painting is one of 59 artworks formerly held in New Zealand's overseas posts which are being gifted to 24 galleries and museums from Whangarei to Invercargill.
Miss Clark, also Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, yesterday presented the work to Tracy Puklowski, the director of Aratoi, the Wairarapa Museum of Art and History in Masterton and a small gathering at Aratoi.
"This museum has now been gifted two significant paintings from the former collection of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and I am delighted that the people of the Wairarapa, and their visitors, will be able to view them," Miss Clark said.
"The Wairarapa museum holds three portraits by Woollaston, but no landscapes. It has a very limited acquisitions fund. This work will enlarge its representation of New Zealand landscape paintings.
"The Associate Arts Minister Judith Tizard has previously presented Aratoi with a significant John Weeks landscape, which had also been part of the MFAT collection."
"These are powerful and important works and will give a new focus to the fine collections which are already held and displayed in Aratoi," Ms Clark said.
Ms Puklowski said that paintings had gone only to those galleries that could offer appropriate care and storage of the works.
As Araoti has been built expressly for this purpose, it was in the fortunate position of having a new jewel in its collection.
Conditions on the galleries and museums receiving artworks mean they pay a small contribution ($1000 to $2000) towards the cost of returning the works to New Zealand, acknowledge the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade as the former holder of the works and undertake not to sell or transfer the works.
Ms Puklowski said she hopes the increasing quality of the Aratoi collection will encourage members of the public with valuable art or history objects to think about bequeathing them to Aratoi.