
History and collection
A visual history of New Zealand
The Gallery’s doors opened for the first time on Friday 17 February 1888. Sir George Grey’s gift formed the core of the early collection, and we shared the building with Auckland’s Free Public Library. From these beginnings focussing on European and British art, we now have more than 17,000 works in the collection, and our redeveloped building provides purpose-built spaces for regularly changing exhibitions.
Auckland Art Gallery has grown its collection of artworks with acquisitions, gifts, bequests and long-term loans. Major collection donors have included James Mackelvie, who with Sir George Grey was a founding patron, and in the present day, the Chartwell Trust and Julian and Josie Robertson.
The collection includes major holdings of New Zealand historic, modern and contemporary art. These artworks plot a visual history of New Zealand, beginning with the first contact between Māori and European explorers in the 1600s. Outstanding works by Māori and Pacific Island artists are a powerful feature of our holdings, and the international painting, sculpture and print collections connect us with the world beyond the Pacific. The diversity of mediums and artistic practices in the collection also continues to grow. Our oldest work of art is a sandstone figure from the walls of a Hindu temple in North India. It dates from the 10th–12th century. And our newest is likely to be a commissioned artwork we are creating with an artist right now. Taken together, our holdings are widely considered to comprise New Zealand’s pre-eminent public art collection.
Exhibition history
The E H McCormick Research Library keeps records of our exhibition history. Download a pdf list of these to see the scope our exhibition making down the years.
Auckland Council
Auckland Council has been the Gallery’s principal manager and funder from the first day we opened. Every year the Council provides a grant to aid the development of our collection. The grant guarantees the growth of this asset for the city and acts as a catalyst to the support of others. The Council, through Auckland Unlimited, also helps us take care of our heritage-listed building to ensure it remains a beautiful home for art and to safeguard it for future generations.
Major collection donors
1881–1885 James Tannock Mackelvie
1887–1893 Sir George Grey
1894–1952 Nathan Family
1894–1954 Sir Henry Brett
1897 Mackelvie Trust
1899–1925 Dr Thomson Leys
1899 George and Helen Boyd
1908–1915 Auckland Picture Purchase Fund
1911–1952 Auckland Society of Arts
1915 Henry E Partridge
1920–1939 Charles F Goldie
1921–1924 Viscount Lord Leverhulme
1921–1933 Moss Davis
1929 James Coleman
1939 Harry Kinder
1948–1969 Lucy Carrington Wertheim
1954 Winstone Bequest
1954–1989 Colin McCahon
1954 Friends of the Auckland Art Gallery
1958 PA Edmiston Trust
1959 Rutland Group
1961–1968 Norman B Spencer
1963 George Wooller
1972 Dennis Nathan Family
1976 M A Serra Trust
1977–1990 Lillian Gilmour
1980 Molly Morpeth Canaday Trust
1982 Dr Walter Auburn
1982–2003 Theo Schoon
1984 Barry Perkins
1985 Daphne Carruthers
1985–1986 Alan Gibbs and Jenny Gibbs
1987 McCahon Family
1987 Patrons of the Auckland Art Gallery
1990 Elise Mourant Bequest
1991 Pat and Gil Hanly
1993 Ilene and Laurence Dakin Bequest
1996 Graeme Maunsell Trust
1997 Chartwell Trust
1998 Thanksgiving Foundation
2000 Marti Friedlander
2000 Lyndsay Garland Trust
2002–2006 Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
2008 Max Gimblett and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
2009 Julian and Josie Robertson
2012 Dame Jenny Gibbs
2014 Nan Corson and Chris Corson-Scott