There’s not a lot of rest for someone as community minded as Greg Moyle whose philanthropy knows no bounds. The latest, his bequest of 20 significant New Zealand artworks to the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. The more humble side of his philanthropy includes raising chickens at his home in Herne Bay.
On Fridays, Greg travels to his tiny cottage on his farm overlooking the Hauraki Plains to gather fruit and seedlings to sell with these eggs at the Grey Lynn Sunday Farmers Market. All proceeds go to Rotary Club of Downtown’s 'Gardens in Schools' teaching students vegetable growing at 20 Auckland schools.
His life-long love of art was inspired by the influence of the late Arnold Wilson, Mt Albert Grammar School head of art, amassing a collection of 2000 artworks spread between his home and school. He says, “I never really left,” as he has been Chair of the school board for the last 20 years and has filled the walls of the school with his art collection, influencing the next generation in art appreciation.
After a degree in commerce, Greg worked as an accountant across the road from George Walker Antiques in Newmarket, where he started paying off artworks he liked and could afford. “For me, purchasing a piece of art is an emotional experience. While I am not an artist, my appreciation of art has developed over the last 50 years.”
One aspect of his collection is military art reflecting his experience of being in the NZ Territorials since 1974, the military police and two overseas deployments.
Accountancy was followed by four years in the New Zealand Police Force and a return to university for a law degree. In 1986, Greg joined the Department of Justice as a senior investigating accountant in the Corporate Fraud Unit. He has also taught at the University of Auckland and Unitec.
Currently, Greg is a financial advisor, does a myriad of charity and community work and is a member of the Waitematā Local Board. His political career dates back to 1989 as Chair of Western Bays Community Board, Auckland City Councillor in 2007 when he chaired the Arts, Culture and Recreation Committee on some major projects: Q Theatre; Viaduct Events Centre; Aotea Square; Pah Homestead; Sir John Campbell Kindergarten and the Caretaker’s Cottage in Victoria Park; relocation of ‘Mountain Fountain’ by Terry Stringer to the forecourt of Holy Trinity Cathedral and ‘Wind Tree’ by Michio Ihara to Wynyard Quarter.
During preparation, the gallery conservators discovered that three of the artworks had previous artworks on their backs. ‘Kingseat, Early Spring’ 1976 Jacqueline Fahey had a dark haired girl by a window; ‘Maquettes and Carvings’ 1950 Russell Clark reverse had a male nude and ‘Boys Fighting over Pink Plastic Gun’ 1978 Michael Smither with a hidden painting behind it of water on hills.
The kikuyu grass creeps towards Thomas Smither and a friend fighting over a pink gun with a background of the chimney from the gas-fired power station at Port Taranaki and Paratutu Tank Farm behind a non-smoking sign. This is a familiar part of my childhood as Michael and his family lived at the top of Mt View Place, my childhood home in New Plymouth and my sister babysat him and his sister, Sarah. We, too, got to breathe the fumes from Ivon Watkins-Dow, the chemical company that produced ‘Agent Orange’, the defoliant used in the Vietnam War along with 245T.
‘April’ 1987 Louise Henderson was part of a series ‘The Twelve Months’ and held significance to the artist as her birthday month but was not part of a previous exhibition with the other 11 months as its whereabouts was unknown until this bequest.
‘Higher Ground, Lower Ground’ 2007 John Pule, the two halves are rejoined again after being split between MAGS and Greg’s home as the school took issue with some of the more graphic elements of the painting.
The rest of the $5 million bequest are ‘Pataclaq (Bailiff XI B)’ 1976 Douglas MacDiarmid; ‘Augusta and Voss’ 1962 Jacqueline Fahey; ‘The Shearer's Wife’ 1952 Russell Clark; ‘Oasis’ 1958 Richard Lovell-Smith; ‘Boats, Island Bay’ 1968, ‘Houses, Wellington’ 1964 and ‘Evening View from the Studio’ 1961 Rita Angus; ‘The River Tone, Somerset’ 1939 and ‘Chapel in the Field, Corfe Castle’ 1944 Frances Hodgkins; ‘Menorca’ 1978 and ‘Binisafua’ 1978 Ralph Hotere; ‘News’ 1939 A Lois White; ‘Knitting for Soldiers’ 1949 Bessie Christie; ‘Evening, Chelsea Embankment’ 1913 and ‘Woman in a Chiffon Jacket’ 1914 Raymond McIntyre. The latter is a work that Greg coveted for many years before being able to purchase it and possibly his favourite of these gifted works.
“I am motivated to keep the important items from my collection together for the benefit of the community, including my family, rather than having them sold upon my death, and l am delighted that they will find a permanent home with Auckland Art Gallery,” Greg Moyle.
