Good Work: The Jim Barr and Mary Barr Collection

Good Work: The Jim Barr and Mary Barr Collection

2 November 2001 - 27 January 2002

Fresh, lively, bold and contentious, the collection of Wellingtonian's Jim Barr and Mary Barr offers a crucial graph of the life of New Zealand art in the last three decades, and a provocative account of where the good work is right now. In 1997 the Barrs offered more than 120 of their works to the Dunedin Public Art Gallery on long-term loan. Good Work is the collection's first substantial airing for several years, and the first time this nationally significant collection of contemporary art has been publicly exhibited in the Barr's home city, Wellington.

Because they are not hemmed in by perceived public needs, private collectors are often free to pursue private pleasures and unfamiliar tastes in a way public collections cannot and to do so swiftly. While the collection includes key works in New Zealand's contemporary art history, Good Work's focus is the collection's recent acquisitions. Colin McCahon catches the shade of Lillian Budd, for instance, and Michael Parekowhai sheds fresh light on Ans Westra. Recently, the Barrs have begun to collect video a medium which, despite its influence in contemporary art, has not been collected in earnest by any public New Zealand gallery. They have also begun to collect beyond New Zealand there are several works by Australian artists in the exhibition and there are works such as Kerrie Poliness's Black O wall drawings, which have no permanent existence as physical objects.

Exhibiting Artists: Stephen Birch, L Budd et al, Shane Cotton, Derek Cowie, Julian Dashper, Don Driver, Mikala Dwyer, Warwick Freeman, Jeffrey Harris, Denise Kum, Colin McCahon, NICJOB, Michael Parekowhai, Peter Peryer, Kerrie Poliness, Patrick Pound, John Reynolds, Peter Robinson, Marie Shannon, Stuart Shepherd, Michael Stevenson, Ricky Swallow, Ronnie van Hout and Ans Westra.

Good Work is a Dunedin Public Art Gallery touring exhibition.