In the most direct sense, Brought to Light is characterised by new views, and one long view in particular.
Your journey through the galleries is made through a long central arcade that is both an exhibition space and a beginning or end place for visitors to gather. Reaching from early twentieth-century art at one end to early twenty-first-century art at the other, this arcade is a palpable expression of our belief that art's past and its present should be in live conversation with each other.
The arcade and enlarged spaces alongside and beyond it feature 'old favourites', now placed in spaces and in company that we hope will reveal many 'new favourites' too.
Little-known works have been brought out of the darkness of the storerooms, and in the process have set the scene for a deeper encounter with some previously under-represented local artists, chief among them the remarkable abstract painter Gordon Walters.
Space has been made for a whole category of objects—ceramics—and for large works such as John Reynolds's 1,600-piece art-historical jumble sale, Table of Dynasties, plus installations as wide and bright as Bill Culbert's Pacific Flotsam.
A visit to Brought to Light is, first and foremost, an opportunity to get up close with hundreds of extraordinary works of art. But the spirit of the exhibition resides as much in the conversations that will emerge between works of art as it does in the works themselves.
The conversation between new and old art, both produced by and depicting Ngāi Tahu, in the very first room of Brought to Light. The conversation between those Ngāi Tahu works and the European landscapes that follow them. The conversation between near and far, international and local, that will come to life in the Connoisseurs' Room and a space dedicated to those artists who travelled energetically between New Zealand and Europe, ferrying ideas and images as they went. And the conversation between different times and traditions, which we'll encourage by ignoring the usual hard-and-fast separation of historical and contemporary.
The last space you encounter is a one dedicated to an ever-changing display of new arrivals in the collection. The principle is simple: space allowing, when a new work arrives in the collection you'll have a chance to see it.
After all, those new acquisitions are not 'ours'. They're yours.
