Rodney Wilson

Thomas Lance Rodney ('Rodney') Wilson (1945 – 27 April 2013) was a New Zealand art historian and museum professional. He served as director of a number of major New Zealand museums and art galleries, including the Christchurch Art Gallery, Auckland Art Gallery and Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Wilson was born in Christchurch in 1945. His secondary schooling was at St. Andrew's College in Christchurch. He then studied Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury in the 1960s.

In the early 1970s he returned to study, gaining a 'doctoraal' in art history from the Katholieke Universiteit (now Radboud University Nijmegen) in The Netherlands. He completed a Ph.D in Art History at the University of Canterbury in the late 1970s.

Wilson's first museum role came shortly after leaving the University of Canterbury, when he was appointed director of the Wairarapa Arts Centre in Masterton, a role he left to undertake further study in The Netherlands.

Wilson returned to New Zealand as the first appointee to the new art history department at the University of Canterbury. He taught there for five years while also completing his Ph.D. In November 1978 he was appointed director of Christchurch's Robert McDougall Art Gallery (now the Christchurch Art Gallery. Although he spent only two years at the Gallery several major acquisitions were made during that time, including Ralph Hotere's Malady Panels (1971) and five works by Frances Hodgkins, including Unshatterable / Belgian Refugees(1916).

In 1981 Wilson left Christchurch Art Gallery for the Auckland Art Gallery, where he was director until 1988. Here he led a major building renovation that nearly doubled the gallery's exhibiting space and added an auditorium, two conservation labs, a bookshop and a cafe, and improved art storage space.

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