3 minute read
CHRISTCHURCH
HŌTOKE • WINTER 2022
View of the second-storey living space.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga has entered Sutton house and garden in Christchurch as a Category 1 historic place on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero.
WORDS: Rosemary Baird IMAGES: Christchurch City Council Newsline
This former home-studio of renowned Canterbury artist, Bill Sutton, is run by a Charitable Trust as an artist residency – the first of its kind in Christchurch.
HNZPT Acting Director Southern, Dr Christine Whybrew, is thrilled about having this important Canterbury artist’s home studio and rare survivor in the ‘red zone’ recognised nationally. “William (Bill) Sutton, 1917-2000, was a Christchurchborn artist, who taught at the Canterbury College School of Art from 1949 until his retirement in 1979. As a practising artist and teacher, he promoted a nationalist style of painting, and is best known for his four-decade long interpretation of the Canterbury landscape,” she says. The List report written by HNZPT listing advisor, Robyn Burgess, reveals the cultural, architectural and historical significance of the site. Long before any European dwellings were built on Templar Street, this site was a vital part of the seasonal food gathering space for Waitaha, Ngāti Māmoe and Ngāi Tahu. The Ōtākaro teemed with water, plant and bird life and was
an important part of traditional travel routes. When Bill Sutton bought the site in 1963 the previous colonial cottage had been demolished and the site was clear.
In 1963, Sutton asked his friend and colleague at the School of Art, Tom Taylor, to design his new home. Taylor and Sutton worked together designing Sutton’s home – from integrating a tapa cloth backing into custom inbuilt shelving, to designing windows and lighting for the studio, to including a glasshouse that protruded from the studio/living room for Sutton’s orchids and sub-tropical plants. The listing also includes the unique garden Sutton designed and planted. The house has a large studio/living room downstairs and a small private upstairs area with two bedrooms and a shower room. The open studio gave Sutton space to create larger landscape canvases. The extra studio space let him accept more formal portrait commissions. Sutton also installed an Albion press in an adjacent storeroom/workshop on which he printed under the name Templar Press. “This has been a very exciting listing to research,” says Robyn. It has huge cultural and social value as part of the history of Christchurch’s regional arts movement from the 1960s. It has been wonderful to enter another modernist building in on the List.” Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel is delighted the significance of the property has been formally recognised by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga. “Sutton House holds a special place in Christchurch’s art history and deserves its Category 1 listing. Bill Sutton was an extraordinary artist and a proud Cantabrian. It is great the property is now accessible to the public and able to be used by visiting artists,’’ the Mayor says. n
This issue
East wall of studio showing tapa cloth backing, shelves, hatch to kitchen, and writing desk.
1 CHRISTCHURCH Bill Sutton’s house and garden now Category 1 historic place
3 EDITORIAL Managing heritage expectations
4 AUCKLAND Restoration in the heart of Auckland’s Britomart precinct
6 ŌPŌTIKI Historic whare brought out of the shed and into the light
8 BLENHEIM Perfectly-placed farm used for defence purposes during WW2
10 BAY OF ISLANDS Time to revisit New Zealand’s little-known history
12 FEATURE INTERVIEW Senior Heritage Assessment Advisor Kerryn Pollock 14 OAMARU Hannah Hayes’ cycling exploits inspire new research
15 ARCHAEOLOGY Senior archaeologist joins expedition to remote Fiordland sites
16 TOHU WHENUA Exploring Denniston on foot
18 AUCKLAND Moving with the times — the surprising history of a stately statue
20 NATIONAL Incentive Fund grants helping to meet conservation needs heritagenewzealand heritage_nz @heritagenz
Editor: Adrienne Hannan Designer: Jeremiah Boniface
Published by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, Heritage Quarterly keeps you up-to-date with heritage news from around New Zealand.
Copyright © Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.
All images credit Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga unless otherwise stated.
For more information or to subscribe, write to PO Box 2629, Wellington 6140 or contact the editor, phone: 04 470 8066 or email: ahannan@heritage.org.nz.
ISSN 2324-4267 (Print) ISSN 2324-4275 (Online).
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