Ngā mihi o te Tau Hou!
We’re closing at 5pm today. Start your new year immersed in art – we’ll see you bright and breezy on New Year’s Day from 10am.
Kā Kaupapa o te Wā
What’s On
Raymond McIntyre: A Modernist View
New exhibition now open.
Living Archives
Archives that tell stories about artists and history in Aotearoa
Whāia te Taniwha
Māori artists consider the enduring relevance of taniwha in Aotearoa.
E tuwhera ana te wharetoi i kā rā e 7 o te wiki, 10am - 5pm
Ka tuwhera ki te 9pm i kā pō Wenerei
Open 7 days, 10am - 5pm
Late night Wednesday until 9pm
Uruka utukore, ahokore utukore
Free entry, free wifi
Collection
Gordon Walters Untitled
Brought to light, November 2009- 22 February 2011
Many opinions have been offered on the remarkable ‘koru’ paintings made by Gordon Walters. Merging the geometry of modernist abstract painting with the unfurling fern motif from Maori art, these paintings are meditations on the theme of exchange – the way forms and ideas move from one place to another and change along the way. In the 1990s the koru works found themselves caught up in a debate about the rights and wrongs of cross-cultural borrowing. More recently, writers have argued that the powerfully visual qualities of these works have yet to be fully explored.
In 1947 Gordon Walters visited Theo Schoon in South Canterbury, where Schoon was recording Māori rock drawings. It was one of many occasions on which Walters drew inspiration from traditional Māori art. When he travelled to Europe in 1950, Walters realised that modern art had learned important lessons from the arts of the Pacific. Soon after, he began working with the koru, or fern bud, motif – a Māori decorative form used on rafter paintings, incised gourds and in tattooing. In the extraordinary series of abstract paintings that resulted, this simple form expresses a vast range of dynamic relationships.
Collection
Kristy Gorman Bias
Kristy Gorman’s abstract paintings often focus as much on what lies below the surface as the paint itself. Here the weave of the muslin is just as important as the abstract shapes Gorman has painted on it. The title relates to the warp and weft of woven fabric, and it is the gentle rhythms created by the bias of her muslin canvas that come into play in this painting, forming a delicate and restrained background for the abstract shapes. The underlying patterns are emphasised by what has been left out – overlapping rectangles are suggested rather than painted within the larger blue rectangle that dominates the composition.
(Die Cuts and Derivations, 11 March – 2 July 2023)
Collection
Nikau Hindin Rere Runga Rawa | Ascend to the higher realms
For several years, Nikau Hindin has been learning the art of making aute (Māori tapa / barkcloth), a skill that until recently had not been practiced in Aotearoa for over a hundred years. Hindin decorates her aute with dynamic patterns based on tukutuku and tāniko weaving designs. They are painted using kōkōwai, which is a natural pigment from local clays. This work, Rere Runga Rawa | Ascend to the higher realms, signals a shift in her practice as she begins to explore manu aute (kites made from aute) after working collaboratively with Rongomai Grbic-Hoskins. Hindin says: “Kites symbolise joy and leisure time but can also bring foreboding warnings. I think the duality of these sign reflects the double-edged needs of our current social climate. I think we need to rest more and escape in extreme joy, but we also need to confront the climate emergency. One way we can do this is by recognising Indigenous knowledge and learning how to be good tangata Tiriti.”
(Die Cuts and Derivations, 11 March – 2 July 2023)
