Tauranga Art Gallery - Toi Tauranga

Bringing Kathleen's Collection home to Tauranga - 20 Apr 2010

A collection of artworks that is the culmination of a lifetime love of art by the late Kathleen Kirkby, returns home briefly to Tauranga where it will be on show at Tauranga Art Gallery from 24 April.

Kathleen’s Collection: the Kathleen Kirkby Collection comprises 26 works that were collected by Kirkby and her father, Sir Robert Anderson, throughout their lives. The collection is now housed in the family home, Anderson Park Art Gallery, in Invercargill, which was gifted by the family for use as a dedicated art gallery.

“The collection is an assortment of works, which is quite often seen in domestic collections,” says Gallery Manager Penelope Jackson. ”Both Kathleen and her father had differing tastes in art. Kathleen favoured works by New Zealand women artists, such as Frances Hodgkins, M. O. Stoddart and Airini Vane, as well as works that had a femininity, or sentimental quality about them. However its likely that the European etchings were collected by Robert Anderson on his travels.”

Shortly after Kathleen’s marriage to Herbert Wynn Kirkby in 1932, the Kirkbys settled in Tauranga where Wynn, as he was known, owned a road construction business. Their Tanner Street house included a special room dedicated to her art collection.

“Time has meant that some of the vital information about the collection has disappeared,” says Jackson. “We can see that some were purchased in Christchurch, which was the leading centre for visual arts at that time. Others were likely purchased in Europe and framed in New Zealand.”

The collection is also a reflection of fashion and to a certain extent a ‘who’s who’ in the art world. The exhibition includes works by Frances Hodgkins, After Rembrandt, Goldie and Miles Birket Foster, a popular Victorian painter and illustrator.

Kathleen Kirkby devoted much of her time to the Red Cross, receiving a commendation for her 40 years of service to the Red Cross in Tauranga. In 1982 she was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal. Kirkby died in 1992 having spent her final years at Elmswood Rest Home, Waihi Road.

With the generous assistance of the K D Kirkby Trust, Guardian Trust and the Anderson Park Art Gallery, the collection has come north to be displayed in the city that Kathleen made her home for 55 years.

Kathleen’s Collection: the Kathleen Kirkby Collection can be viewed at Tauranga Art Gallery until 20 June.