John Daly-Peoples reviews Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery: A Whanganui biography by Martin Edmond for NZ Arts Review:
‘Whanganui’s Serjeant Gallery has just reopened after having been closed for ten years with an opening season entitled “Nō Konei | From Here” (Until 11 May 2025). The exhibition features over 200 artworks, spanning four centuries of European and New Zealand art history. Filling the gallery’s newly expanded exhibition spaces, works range from traditional gilt-framed paintings to contemporary practice in a variety of media.
Coinciding with the opening is the publication of “Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery” which tells the gallery’s 100-year history.
Written by Martin Edmond the book charts the Sarjeant Gallery’s early years and its development as a collecting and exhibiting institution that is now recognised as one of the major New Zealand’s art galleries.
The gallery which is one of the most elegant and imposing buildings in the country is located at a central point in the city and has been of significance to the development of the city.
Henry Sarjeant whom the gallery is named after had lived in the area since the 1860’s and had a lifelong interest in the arts, visiting the major galleries of Europe during a number of trips abroad. When he died in 1912, aged 82, he left property valued at £30,000 in trust to the Wanganui Borough Council for the purpose of building and maintaining an art gallery. The design of the gallery was won by Dunedin architect Edmund Anscombe and the building was constructed in the shape of a Greek Cross and faced with Oamaru stone.
The Governor General, the earl of Liverpool, laid the foundation stone on 20 September 1917, and on 6 September 1919 the Prime Minister, W. F. Massey, officially opened the gallery.’
Read the rest of the review here.
