Auckland Art Gallery

The Auckland Art Gallery

The Auckland Art Gallery is the largest art museum of New Zealand, founded in 1887 at the corner of Albert Park, famous for its portraits of Maori dignitaries. The Auckland audio-guided tour stops here to evoke this fine building and its rich collection, a fine gateway to New Zealand culture and the work of the painter Charles Frederick Goldie.

The Maori portraits of Goldie and New Zealand art

This fine building at the corner of Albert Park is the largest art museum of New Zealand. Founded in 1887, the Auckland Art Gallery today reveals a vast collection of paintings, sculptures and works on paper, that cover several centuries of New Zealand and international creation. Among its most emblematic pieces figure numerous portraits of Maori dignitaries, made by Charles Frederick Goldie, a great New Zealand painter who made a lasting reputation thanks to these portraits of a striking precision, precious testimonies of the faces and the moko, the traditional tattoos, of Maori culture at the turn of the twentieth century. This gallery is a fine occasion to discover New Zealand culture through works gathered throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and to meet the Maoris, the first people to have settled on the archipelago. The building itself harmoniously mingles a historic part of the end of the nineteenth century, of French style, and a contemporary extension of wood and glass, awarded for its architecture, that opens onto the greenery of Albert Park. Inside, the luminous rooms present both the old art and the current Maori and Pacific creation. An art museum and a window on the culture of the country, the Auckland Art Gallery is a fine stop of the discovery of Auckland.

What to see

Here you discover the largest art museum of New Zealand, founded in 1887 at the corner of Albert Park, and its vast collection covering several centuries; you admire notably the portraits of Maori dignitaries by Charles Frederick Goldie, precious testimonies of the faces and the moko of Maori culture, in a fine building mingling a historic part of French style and an awarded contemporary extension. The Auckland Art Gallery is a window on New Zealand culture. It is a fine stop, indoors.

Practical information

The Auckland Art Gallery lies at the corner of Kitchener Street and Wellesley Street, on the edge of Albert Park, in the heart of the town centre, reachable on foot. It follows its own days and opening hours, variable; access to the collection is often free, some exhibitions being able to be subject to a fee. It is best to enquire before coming.

What to see at the Auckland Art Gallery?

The largest art museum of New Zealand, founded in 1887, and notably the famous portraits of Maori dignitaries by Charles Frederick Goldie, precious testimonies of the faces and the moko of Maori culture; the collection covers several centuries of New Zealand and international art, in a building mingling a historic part of French style and an awarded contemporary extension, on the edge of Albert Park.

Where is the Auckland Art Gallery?

At the corner of Kitchener Street and Wellesley Street, on the edge of Albert Park, in the heart of the town centre of Auckland, in New Zealand.