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Paula Savage

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New Zealand gallery director

Paula Savage was Director of City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi from 1990 to 2012. In that time she oversaw its rebranding and the move to a permanent home in Wellington’s Civic Square. She was also responsible for a programme of high profile overseas exhibitions of key international artists such as Yayoi Kusama, Robert Mapplethorpe and Frida Khalo.

History

After serving as history curator at Rotorua Museum Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa, Savage was appointed Director of the Wellington City Gallery. Here she oversaw the redevelopment of the former Wellington Public Library Building in collaboration with architect Stuart Gardyne and the Gallery's relocation in 1993. At the same time the Gallery was rebranded in association with the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi and renamed City Gallery Wellington. To open the refurbished building, Gregory Burke curated an exhibition by the German artist Rosemarie Trockel. Savage described the show as ‘tough and challenging’ adding, ‘that’s what the gallery is going to be about.’ In 1994 Savage was in charge of the installation of the now iconic neon sculpture Fault created by Ralph Hotere and Bill Culbert. It was commissioned by Scollay Holdings through the Wellington City Council Arts Bonus scheme.

In 2009 Savage and Gardyne worked together again to add a $6.3 million extension to the Gallery's exhibition space. The opening of this redevelopment was celebrated by an exhibition of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. In the same year Savage appointed the Gallery's first Māori curator, Reuben Friend. Savage left the City Gallery in 2012 and  took on responsibility for the international residency programme of  the Auckland dealer gallery Two Rooms. In 2015 she became an independent art advisor.

Selected exhibitions during Savage’s directorship

1991 Good as Gold: Billy Apple Art Transactions, 1981-1991.

1994 Tony Fomison: What Shall we Tell Them?

1997 Ralph Hotere: Out the Black Window .

1998 Exhibition of the Century: Modern Masters from the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. 84,000 people attended, 14,000 more than forecast. Art curator and writer Justin Paton said of the exhibition, 'what stays with you after you leave this show is a sense of high-heartedness, even intimacy: against a backdrop of world events as awful as any have been, the objects sing out like flowers in a bombsite.’

2000 Parihaka: The Art of Passive Resistance was a partnership between the City Gallery and Parihaka Pā Trustees. Parihaka spokesman Te Miringa Hohaia said of the exhibition, ‘It’s the first time that the Parihaka people have ever given their consent as a community to participate so publicly in such a thing as an exhibition, film, or book, or anything like that.’

Viva la Vida : Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism. The exhibition was the collection of Jacques and Natasha Gelman. The Gelmans lived in Mexico who owned, 'an outstandingly fine group' of 20th-century European paintings and sculptures They were also patrons, friends and collectors of Kahlo and Rivera.

2001 Prospect: New Art New Zealand. This exhibition was planned as the first of what was to be a triennial event. Despite suspicions by critics that it would be a one-off occasions, three more editions of Prospect were exhibited, in 2004, 2007 and 2012. Prospect 1 (2001) was curated by Lara Strongman, Prospect 2 (2004) by Emma Bugden, Prospect 3 (2007) by Heather Galbraith and Prospect 4 (2012) by Kate Montgomery.

2002 Tracey Moffatt. Curated by Lara Strongman and Paula Savage.

2006 Patricia Piccinini : In Another Life. This was one of City Gallery's most popular exhibitions, attracting ‘upwards of 120,000 visitors’.

2009 Kusama : Mirrored Years. The exhibition was on view for four-and-a-half months and drew an audience of over 88,155 people.

2011 Oceania: Imagining the Pacific. Shown in partnership with Te Papa, the exhibition was delivered across the two institutions by curators Gregory O'Brien, Paula Savage, Reuben Friend and Abby Cunnane.

Controversies

In the first five years of Savage's Directorship three exhibitions met opposition because of their sexual content. In 1995 New Zealand Customs seized three photographs from an  exhibition by the American artist Robert Mapplethorpe for possible objectionable content. The Chief Censor's office finally applied an R18 rating (which the Gallery had already implemented) along with instructions that the catalogue had to be sold in a sealed plastic bag. Four years later a Keith Haring exhibition only attracted 30,000 people, half the number expected. Savage claimed the Christian Heritage Party and the protest group City Gallery Watch were responsible for the low attendance figures. The two groups had protested that Haring's images were offensive through their depictions of sodomy, masturbation and bestiality.

Awards

2008 New Zealand Order of Merit for Services to the Arts.

References

  1. McKee, Hannah (7 August 2014). "Gallery Marks 21 Years in City's Heart". DominionPost. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  2. "Stuart Gardyne". Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  3. "The Fine Art of Selling a Gallery". MidWest. 6. 1994.
  4. Kerr, Bob (Spring 1993). "Rosemarie Trockel and the New Imperialists". Landfall (186).
  5. "Fault". Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  6. "Wellington City Gallery's Reopening". Radio New Zealand. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  7. "Images: Parihaka Works at City Gallery". Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  8. "Two Rooms". Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  9. Pound, Francis (Autumn 1992). "Money- The Skeleton in the Cupboard of Art: A Commentary on Billy Apple's As Good as Gold". Art New Zealand (62).
  10. Baskett, Pat (14 June 1995). "Life and Journeys". New Zealand Herald. p. 7.
  11. "Story: Hōtere, Hone Papita Raukura (Ralph)". Te Ara. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  12. Harris, Miriam (Summer 1998). "Telling Stories: The Stedelijk Saga". Art New Zealand (89).
  13. Paton, Justin (27 June 1998). "You say you want a Revolution". Listener: 40–41.
  14. Amery, Mark (26 August 2000). "1881 and All That'". Listener.
  15. Simmons, Laurence (May 2001). "Bearing Witness". Landfall.
  16. Russell, John (6 May 1998). "Natasha Gelman, Collector Of 20th-Century Fine Art, 86". New York Times. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  17. "Telecom Prospect 2001: New Art New Zealand". Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  18. Dekker, Diana (28 November 2011). "City Gallery Through Curator's Eyes". DominionPost. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  19. Rabbit, Lindsay (9 June 2001). "Sex and the City Gallery". Listener: 54–55.
  20. Moore, Marcus (Spring 2004). "Episode 2: Telecom Prospect New Art New Zealand". Art New Zealand (112): 64–69.
  21. Kreisler, Aaron (3 March 2007). "The Fringe Factor: 'State of the Art' Shows like Prospect can be Poisoned". Listener.
  22. Fitzsimons, Tom (22 September 2009). "Dotted Reopening for Gallery". Stuff. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  23. Wood, Stacey (8 February 2010). "Visitors go Dotty over Artworks". DominionPost. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  24. Cardy, Tom (12 August 2011). "Collaborative Show as Wide as the Ocean". DominionPost. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  25. Campbell, Gordon (30 September 1995). "The Freedom to Be Shocking". Listener.
  26. Houlahan, Mike (5 December 1995). "The Frank Images of the Mapplethorpe Retrospective". Evening Post.
  27. Daly-Peoples, John (8 December 1995). "Life Seen through the Unusual Lens of Robert Mapplethorpe". National Business Review.
  28. Cardy, Tom (11 December 2011). "Head of Wellington City Gallery Quits". DominionPost. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  29. "The Full Queen's Birthday Honours List". June 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
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