Katherine Claypole (rear) and Sarah Loveluck-Newland at work in the Sarjeant Gallery’s off-site storage area, where the walls are lined with Gordon H. Brown’s unique collection.
Katherine Claypole (rear) and Sarah Loveluck-Newland at work in the Sarjeant Gallery’s off-site storage area, where the walls are lined with Gordon H. Brown’s unique collection.
Behind the scenes at the Sarjeant, Katherine Claypole and Sarah Loveluck-Newland are working to catalogue a large collection of art books gifted to the Sarjeant by Gordon H. Brown, who was the gallery’s first professional director, serving from 1974-1977.
The project will see the renowned art historian and writer’s considerable personal library integrated with the Sarjeant’s existing library and ultimately housed in the redeveloped building at Pukenamu Queen’s Park. This exceptional resource will be accessible to members of the public, art historians, students and researchers.
Claypole and Loveluck-Newland are working in the Sarjeant’s off-site storage area, where the walls are lined with Brown’s unique collection. They are working two days a week over two months, and when they have completed the cataloguing, they will pack the books to have them ready for the move to the Sarjeant Gallery next year.
Brown donated all his art books to the Sarjeant Gallery after an esteemed career as a leading art historian, author, art critic and reviewer. In 1980, Brown was awarded the OBE for services to art history. The art books in the collection number in the thousands (an estimated 6000 to 10,000 items) and many contain Brown’s personal hand-written notes.
Brown now lives in Auckland closer to family, is in good health and enjoys reading the Sarjeant’s Quarterly bulletins, reports curator of collections Jennifer Taylor Moore.
Brown trained as a librarian, so his specialist art library is extremely well-organised and classified. Every item has a hand-written accession number, date of entry into the collection and a classification number. Brown maintained a manual register from 1945 onwards, which includes the date of purchase and the price paid for each book.
“Gordon collected books and he loved reading,” Taylor Moore said.
“The Dewey Decimal Classification system is very broad for art books, so he devised his own classification system. After assessing it, librarians at the Whanganui District Library have said that they think his system is the best one for us to keep using. It’s extremely well-ordered and it’s easy to find things.”
She says Brown collected New Zealand art journals before Art New Zealand started publishing, early exhibition catalogues from regional New Zealand art societies, as well as almost the full run of the literary journal Landfall.
“There are some quite rare books - some will possibly be the only copy available in New Zealand. He was very interested in photography, so the photography section is just incredible,” Taylor Moore said.
The collection more than doubles the size of the gallery’s existing library and will be housed in a reading room which will occupy the space of the original reception area in the original building.
“I estimate that our existing library collection equates to about 80 running metres of shelving, and Gordon’s collection is an additional 110 running metres. There are not many libraries of this type left in New Zealand, as some of the universities have recently been disbanding their specialist art libraries.”
Gordon Brown was an expert on the work of Colin McCahon. This rare McCahon portrait is of Brown and was painted in 1968. It is in the Sarjeant Collection.
Claypole and Loveluck-Newland are transferring the hard-copy records Brown made to the Whanganui District Library’s database. The records will be available to the public following the gallery’s move back to Pukenamu Queen’s Park. People in New Zealand and overseas will be able to access the library records online through OPAC.
“Cataloguing each book is like a little investigation,” Claypole said.
“We’ve had training from a librarian and are using library best practice, looking for the best information we can find on each book - if, for example, there is a record of it online in another library, and also checking editions and other details to get it right. You have to concentrate, as each book requires a different approach.”
An artist herself, Claypole finds all these wonderful books tempting to linger with.
Loveluck-Newland also finds the collection interesting, particularly the large section on photography.
“I’m not an artist, but I have a great interest in art, and that’s why I applied for the job at the Sarjeant Gallery. It’s really interesting looking at the varied collection that one person has put together, classified and catalogued - the little personal notes, the little mistakes when things went computerised and weren’t saving correctly, so he’d just write a note. And there’s another note about a photocopier dying.”
Five weeks into the job, they are on target and waiting for the packing materials to arrive.
“They will all be kept in order so that when we unpack it at the other end, it’s going to be a little bit easier,” Taylor Moore said. “I can’t wait for the new reading room shelves to be all filled up with these books and for people to be able to visit, browse and do their research.”
