Image courtesy of Auckland Art Gallery website
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
🗓 2 September 2023 – 15 November 2026
📍 Mackelvie Gallery, Mezzanine Level
💰 Free Admission
Where Art, Evidence, and Fabric Intersect
The Auckland Art Gallery’s long-running exhibition Threads of Time: Travel, Trade & Textiles is far more than a visual feast of silk, satin, and portraiture. Curated by Sophie Matthiesson and Kenneth Brummel, this jewel-box display in the historic Mackelvie Gallery examines how fabric — the literal threads of civilisation — reveals the movement of people, power, and ideas across centuries.
Spanning European art from the 15th to 18th centuries, the exhibition gathers beloved works from the permanent collection alongside newly acquired and recently donated pieces. Many are on view for the first time in years, presented in five salon-style sections:
Age of Enlightenment
Age of Sail
Northern Schools
Southern Europe
Threads of Faith
Each theme invites viewers to read paintings not only as aesthetic objects but as evidence — tangible records of technology, status, commerce, and belief. For those in the legal profession, the parallels are striking: both art and law preserve the traces of human negotiation, aspiration, and influence.
Fabric as Witness
Fabrics are, quite literally, products of technology and trade. In a legal sense, they also record economic systems, gender roles, and the politics of value. A bolt of brocade or a glimpse of lace sleeve hints at networks of production stretching from Europe to Asia; it testifies to globalisation centuries before the word existed.
For judges and lawyers attuned to questions of provenance, authenticity, and intent, the exhibition provides a visual case study in material evidence. Every thread tells a story — of who could afford it, who laboured to create it, and who was excluded from its rewards.
Negotiation Between Artist and Client
Many works on display emerged from contractual relationships between artists and patrons — documents of negotiation not unlike legal briefs. The drapery, the embroidery, even the subtle shimmer of fabric beneath varnish were deliberate decisions, reflecting power, virtue, or piety. Seen through a judicial lens, Threads of Time becomes an archive of agreements rendered in oil rather than ink — each work balancing duty, artistry, and the expectations of the law of taste.
Plan Your Visit
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
📍 Corner Kitchener and Wellesley Streets
🕙 Open daily 10 am – 5 pm (except Christmas Day)
☎ +64 9 379 1349
💻 aucklandartgallery.com