The Kelliher Art Trust holds a unique collection of New Zealand paintings

Sir Henry Kelliher was a longstanding patron of the arts and in 1956 he established the Kelliher Art Competition “to capture the grandeur of the New Zealand scene in all its changes through the seasons”, as he described it. The objective of the competition was to encourage realistic portrayals of New Zealand’s landscapes and the ways of life of its people for the entire world to see.
Although the traditional style and subject matter challenged artists and critics who were inclined towards contemporary interpretations, the Kelliher, as it soon was called, quickly became New Zealand’s premiere art event. The Kelliher Art Competition, later called the Kelliher Art Award, was held almost annually until 1977 by which time it had widened its scope to include portrait and genre painting.
The Kelliher Art Trust’s collection largely comprises prizewinning and award-winning paintings from the Competition. In recent years occasional purchases of landscape paintings by more recent established artists have updated the collection.
From 2015 the Trust has annually commissioned a painting by an emerging landscape painter as a way of honouring Sir Henry’s original objective to encourage the painting of New Zealand landscape. Amongst these are works by Freeman White, Aroha Gossage, Caroline Bellamy and Rosanne Croucher.

Image: Sir Grahame Sydney
Born Dunedin 1948
Away to the south (detail)
1993
Oil on linen, 910 x 1370 mm
Purchased 2022. Kelliher Art Trust.