Douglas Lloyd Jenkins at the Hawkes Bay Museum and Art Gallery where he is now the Director, ART+OBJECT is currently working on a cluster of sales and collections which will make up the next catalogue (no. 41), which goes to print the week beginning the 14th of February. The catalogue is notable for the number of interesting and high-profile collections which provide its basis. The New Collectors' Art auction includes the collection of two well-known arts community personalities Gregory Flint (who sadly passed last year) and former long-standing mayor of Waitakere City, Bob Harvey. The Decorative Arts component of the catalogue is a full and varied one, built around the collection of Douglas Lloyd Jenkins. Jenkins is a creative force in NZ design and has been described by Wallpaper magazine as one of the most influential design writers in the Southern Hemisphere. He has specialised throughout his career in restoring to prominence overlooked practitioners of the arts, architecture and design who contributed enormously to the creation of contemporary New Zealand culture. Douglas has hitherto collected heavily in the area of New Zealand Twentieth Century Design, Art and Applied Arts. Now, it seems, his collecting proclivities have shifted somewhat into the region of Victoriana. Believe it or not... You can watch his talk 'New Zealand Design and the secret history of Middle Earth' at the 'Smart works' symposium at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney here, from a couple of years back here.
