Portrait Gallery Founders Honoured

On Friday 13 April 2007 a well attended ceremony was held to accept the commissioned work by Freeman White of a portrait of founders Commander and Judy Williams. The commission reflects the huge contribution in planning, material gifts, and physical effort that the Williams put into the first 19 years of The New Zealand Portrait Gallery. Freeman White's ability and contribution to The Gallery is also recognised, whilst giving us a valuable addition to our own portrait collection.

Pictured down the page are:
The artist with the Williams in front of their portrait.
The portrait
Keith Ovenden, trustee, speaking at the unveiling
The pre-painting sketches generously purchased for The Gallery by the McKinnon family.

Click on the picture for a larger image.

Media Release 13th April 2007
Portrait Gallery Founders Honoured

The founders of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery will be honoured tonight with the unveiling of a new portrait commissioned by the Gallery.

Commander and Mrs Bill Williams were instrumental in establishing the gallery in 1988 and have seen it grow from modest beginnings to an institution on the verge of establishing itself in a permanent home.

Gallery Director, Avenal McKinnon, says the Williams have been key to the gallery’s ability to sustain itself up to this point.

“The Williams' support was not just moral but material and they have been extremely generous in making it possible for us to operate up until now,” Mrs McKinnon says.

Since the Gallery was founded it has established the biennial Adam Portrait Award as a nationally recognised competition.

“In recent times that has grown to include further exhibitions throughout the year which have not only encouraged traditional portrait painting but also forged into new areas with multimedia and other forms of portraits.”

Mrs McKinnon says that with the Gallery making a concerted effort to secure Shed 11 on Wellington’s waterfront as a permanent home ­– in conjunction with the New Zealand Centre for Photography – it seemed an appropriate time to recognise the Williams’ contribution in a permanent way.

“The Gallery decided to commission last year's Adam Award winner, Freeman White, to paint a portrait of the Williams.”

The portrait will be unveiled tonight (Friday 13 April, 2007, 6.30 pm) at Turnbull House in Wellington. Media are invited to attend.

The New Zealand Portrait Gallery operates as a Trust. Among its aims are to maintain a multimedia gallery for the portrayal of the people of New Zealand; to provide opportunities to increase public interest in New Zealand’s identity through portraiture; and to encourage artists working in any medium to portray the people of New Zealand.

For more information please contact:

Avenal McKinnon, Director NZ Portrait Gallery 027 444 4775 or (04) 472 8874 (days)

Death of Commander William (Bill) Williams

This message was issued by the NZ Portrait Gallery November 2008

The New Zealand Portrait Gallery wishes to pay tribute to Commander William Rawle Williams, RNZN (rtd) who died on Friday 14 November 2008.

Cdr. ( Bill) Williams was one of the founders of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, who with his wife Judy Williams helped to establish the Trust in 1990 and acted as Chairman of the Portrait Gallery Trust until 2006, when he became Trustee Emeritus.

He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Friends and contributed hugely to the NZ Portrait Gallery both in effort and donations. He is sadly missed and our condolences go to his widow, Judy, and family.

The painting, above, of Commander Williams and his wife was generously painted for us by Freeman White on a commission by the Gallery and presented to us 13 April 2007. Also shown is a preliminary pencil sketch.