This week a visit to Lincoln University library led to the campus collection of art.
The University, the oldest agricultural teaching institution in the Southern Hemisphere, was created in 1990 when Lincoln College, Canterbury, was made independent of the University of Canterbury. There was no collecting policy in place but after the sale of cigarettes and biscuits at morning and afternoon teas in the staff common room led to a sizeable amount of money to spend, the staff decided to purchase paintings to decorate the Senior Staff Common Room. This was the start of what is now a collection of more than 300 pieces, many of which are on public display in the various rooms and grounds of the campus.
The university George Forbes Memorial Library is housed in Ivey Hall. Behind the Jacobean Revival facades of the building, the library resides in a series of 1980s and ’90s interiors, and hosts pieces from the art collection.
Philippa Blair’s piece Snowbound Cloak hangs on the lower ground floor. It references Maori korowai (cloaks), an enveloping canvas suggesting a shelter from the cold of a winter’s night in the Southern Alps.
In Project to Promote Flemish Carpet Weaving made in the 1960s, the Belgian artist, Marcel Notebaert, used wool to create a large hanging showing the various industries associated with the making of textiles. The photographs below show the piece. It takes its place alongside the New Zealand artworks in this collection of art.
Explore more: Lincoln University art collection
Leave a Reply