3 February - 24 March 2024

Percy Thomson Gallery, Whakaahurangi Stratford.

The Fletcher Trust Collection was founded sixty years ago, in 1962, as the corporate art collection for Fletcher Holdings. Today, it is one of the country’s most prestigious private art collections. Placing an emphasis on painting, it aims to celebrate the richness of Aotearoa artmaking. Works both new and old continue to be added.

'Gathered Voices: Highlights from the Fletcher Trust Collection' presents 22 curated works of national significance that tell rich and varied stories about this place and those who call it home. Curated by Francis McWhannell, this exhibition is touring around Aotearoa and this is your only chance to view in Taranaki.

One of the most important touring exhibitions to be seen for many years at PTG, this is a wonderful opportunity to view works by C. F. Goldie, Rita Angus, George French Angas, William Strutt, Emily Karaka, Michael Smither, Robyn Kahukiwa, Tony Fomison, Ian Scott, Jacqueline Fahey and more.

 The collection is perhaps best known for its landscapes and works of formal abstraction, but portraits and other figure-based pictures form a lively core, exuding countless stories. Gathered Voices showcases some especially fine examples drawn from a range of time periods and reflecting a range of perspectives.

A few works express perspectives that are misguided, even offensive. Yet they retain value, as embodiments of ancestors, or as markers of a complex past with lasting effects. The earliest pieces by date are ‘colonial’ portraits. But there are works that speak to older pūrākau and deeper histories, enfolding tūpuna or atua whose roots long precede the arrival of tauiwi in Aotearoa.

 The compact nature of this exhibition means that some collection ‘favourites’ have been left out. The select pieces on display express important themes running through many of the figure-based works in the Fletcher Trust Collection: family, place, culture, identity, ethics.

The arrangement of pictures is neither linear nor strictly thematic. Visitors are invited to consider different points of connection, to construct their own narratives. When works are gathered together, in a show or in an assembly like the Fletcher Trust Collection, new conversations emerge. Meanings develop that are often unexpected and unexpectedly rewarding.

 Curated by Francis McWhannell

 Proudly supported by:

The Deane Endowment Trust and The Fletcher Trust