Coming from New York where it feels like there are more museums than we can count (shout-out to our favorite, The Met Cloisters), we were excited about our visit to the Auckland Art Gallery.

The Auckland Art Gallery is centrally located near the Civic Center and Central City Library.  It’s free to enter, air conditioned, and full of beautiful pieces.  Even if you don’t have time on your agenda, it’s a perfect spot to stop in and cool off when you’re in the area even if it’s just for 30 minutes.  Again, it’s FREE, so no guilt associated with a quick in and out.

The ground floor was dedicated to New Zealand artists and is a good place to start.

There are other wings with international pieces as well, spanning from historic, to contemporary, to modern.

We feel we lucked out because we got to see exhibit of The Maori Portraits: Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand. The last day at this location is 2/19/17. Lindauer began his career in Vienna and painted portraits of the elite in Europe. At the museum we were told he moved to New Zealand after a fascinating encounter with Maori people at a global expedition, but Wikipedia says he was avoiding the draft. Sneaky! Motives for moving aside, once he arrived in New Zealand he began painting really amazing portraits of the people and daily life.

It was not only an exhibit of beautiful paintings, but a glimpse of Maori history that we hadn’t seen before. We weren’t allowed to take photos, but google “Lindauer, Maori.” for a quick reference.

The museum was lovely and I promise you won’t regret time spent there.  You might get lucky like us and get a history lesson too.