The Timaru Herald 25 Aug 2020 Joanne Holden
JOHN BISSET/STUFF
Petrena Fishburn, the collections curator at the Aigantighe Art Gallery, with the 1895 painting The Mother by Thomas Kennington, which has been recently restored thanks to the gallery’s Friends group.
An 125-year-old oil painting owned by Timaru’s art gallery that was too fragile to exhibit for the past four years has been restored.
The Friends of the Aigantighe Art Gallery donated $2200 to conserve English artist Thomas Kennington’s The Mother, the latest beneficiary of a project which has raised about $30,000 to restore 19 artworks since 2012.
‘‘The Mother is one of the gems in our collection,’’ Friends vice president Roselyn Fauth said.
‘‘It was starting to crack and the canvas was weakening, so it was critical to get this to the conservator.
‘‘We’re so grateful to the past generations that donated to the gallery, and now we have the exciting role to conserve that art for future generations.’’
The cost of shipping the painting in a special crate to Christchurch conservator Olivia Pitts had been covered by a member of the Friends, Fauth said.
Former Timaru mayor James Craigie donated the 1895 painting, which had a height and width of more than a metre, to the South Canterbury Arts Society in 1914 – 42 years before the Aigantighe Art Gallery on Wai-iti Rd was built.
The society had been collecting art for a future public collection at the time.
‘‘A lot of the collection has been received through generous donations, and through that we have a collection held in high regard,’’ Fauth said.
The Friends began the art restoration initiative after some paintings developed foxing, which spreads mould through paperworks, and had to be kept away from the unaffected artworks – exacerbating storage issues.
‘‘We have been helping to work through the restoration list faster to remedy this storage problem and make the collection of exhibition standard.’’
Fauth said the group had sponsored four exhibitions, purchased three artworks, commissioned one, and gifted $12,000 metal storage draws to the gallery over the past year.
‘‘It’s a community effort.’’
The group was also raising money for metal racks that would relieve ‘‘immediate pressure’’ on the store room until a more permanent solution
Aigantighe Art Gallery manager Cara Fitzgerald said the painting was a ‘‘very important piece of our collection’’, and part of the founding gift which was an integral part of the gallery’s history.
‘‘The Mother was last displayed in September 2016 to celebrate the art gallery’s diamond anniversary [60 years] and since that exhibition was in our art store because it was too fragile and was in need of conservation.’’
Fitzgerald was ‘‘very grateful’’ to the Friends, a voluntary organisation and registered charity, for its ‘‘support and generosity’’ since being founded in 1976.
‘‘We have had the privilege of having a strong working relationship,’’ she said.