NZ Visual Diary - entry 459

tonality, geometry & perspective - Auckland Art Gallery

It’s likely an incontestable assertion. Most people go to an art museum to study what is foregrounded - paintings and other two-dimensional works affixed to walls or three-dimensional sculptures displayed on pedestals.

Perhaps less common, as a conscious practice for a museum patron, is an intended focus on the background - the architecture of the museum or gallery. There are notable exceptions, where the architecture is foregrounded such that we are transfixed by the edifice itself. Those grand buildings dare us to be distracted by other purposes. Dedicated art patrons know those sacred places.

I feel extremely fortunate to have in my adopted retirement city an art gallery whose form - the building’s architecture - is a much the draw as are the formal art works within. I intended yesterday’s visit to the Auckland Art Gallery to be an exploration of interior spaces, having posted any number of past Substack entries on the building’s magnificent exterior, both original building and its astoundingly beautiful addition. I have noted elsewhere that the new[ish] addition, which serves as the gallery’s main entrance, is a glorious example of vernacular architecture.

Of the images I captured, today’s posted image is more prosaic than others, but I like it nonetheless. It’s not grand interior architecture nor especially expressive of this gallery’s architectural charm. Instead - no surprise here - the themes speak of tonality, geometry and perspective.