There are 461 art pieces in the Brasch Pictorial Collection at the Hocken Library. Artists range from Esmond Atkinson, Olivia Spencer Bower, R.S. Carson, Colin McCahon, and Evelyn Page to Garth Tapper, Ralph Hotere, William Mason, Bill Sutton. Janet Paul and Doris Lusk. Media vary: woodcuts, oils, watercolour sketches, lithographs, and pencil drawings. Brasch was a champion of Frances Hodgkins, the Dunedin-born painter who achieved much of her fame in Britain. These books and pamphlets are from Brasch's library.

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'There is no precedent in New Zealand for the work of Colin McCahon…That is why his work is significant and disturbing, as it is, so far, unique in New Zealand.' So begins and ends Brasch's critical comment on McCahon found in Landfall, December 1950. Brasch was a staunch supporter of McCahon, and even funded his trip to Melbourne to study the arts in 1951. He kept exhibition leaflets, and a scarce one on display - typed and dated 'July 1947 to September 1948' - reiterates his thoughts: 'Colin McCahon's paintings startle and even shock us at first sight because he does not paint the world as we are accustomed to see it and think of it every day.'

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