Māori Artists of the 20th and 21st Centuries

INTRODUCTION

Drawing on customary Māori art and European influences to varying degrees, Māori artists have produced some of New Zealand’s most significant and ground-breaking contemporary art. 

Beginnings

Traditional Māori artists such as carvers and weavers quickly adopted European tools and materials. In the early 20th century some Māori began practising European arts such as easel painting. Politician Apirana Ngata worked to revive carving and weaving.

After the Second World War many Māori moved to the cities. Some studied at university art schools. Māori teacher trainees took part in Gordon Tovey’s scheme to train primary teachers as art and craft advisers. Some became important artists – and so did their students.

Contemporary or customary art?

The modern Māori art movement emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. Artists such as Ralph Hotere, Paratene Matchitt and Cliff Whiting blended Māori tradition with western modernism. At a national hui in 1960 Māori art and craft advisers studied with experts. The first Maori Arts Festival was held in 1963. Some people debated the relationship between customary arts and the new art practices.

Source: Contemporary Māori art – ngā toi hōu, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand 

RALPH HOTERE (TE AUPOURI)  

FRED GRAHAM (NGĀTI KOROKĪ KAHUKURA)  

SELWYN MURU (NGĀTI KURĪ)  

CLIFF WHITING (TE WHĀNAU-Ā-APANUI)  

PARATENE MATCHITT (TE WHĀNAU-Ā-APANUI, TE WHAKATŌHEA, NGĀTI POROU)    

SANDY ADSETT (NGĀTI KAHUNGUNU) 

SIR DEREK LARDELLI (NGĀTI POROU, RONGOWHAKAATA, NGĀTI KONOHI, NGĀI TE AWEAWE)  

BUCK NIN (NGĀTI TOA RANGĀTIRA, NGĀTI RAUKAWA)   

MĀORI WOMEN ARTISTS OF THE LATE 20TH CENTURY 

The rise of Māori women’s art in the late 1970s owed much to the international women’s art movement. The raw expressionism of Kura Te Waru Rewiri, Emare Karaka, Diane Prince and Shona Rapira Davies positioned women painters and sculptors as a distinctive and powerful force within the contemporary Māori art movement. Robyn Kahukiwa established herself as one of the leading global figures in indigenous women’s art with an iconic series of paintings, ‘Wahine toa: women of Māori myth 1984’ (also published as a book, with text by Māori writer Patricia Grace).

Source: Contemporary Māori art – ngā toi hōu, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand  

ROBYN KAHUKIWA (NGĀTI POROU, TE AITANGA-A-HAUITI, NGĀTI HAU, NGĀTI KONOHI, WHĀNAU-A-RUATAUPARE)     

EMARE KARAKA (NGĀTI TE AHI WARU)

SHONA RAPIRA DAVIES (NGĀTI WAI KI AOTEA)

KURA TE WARU REWIRI (NGĀTI KAHU, NGĀ PUHI, NGĀTI KAUWHATA, NGĀTI RANGI)     

MARILYN WEBB (NGĀTI KAHU, TE ROROA) 

 PAULINE YEARBURY (NGĀ PUHI)       

ARTISTS OF THE 21ST CENTURY   

Newer Māori artists in the 2000s included Saffronn Te Ratana, Wayne Youle, Kelcy Taratoi and Star Gossage.

Venice Biennale

When New Zealand first participated in the Venice International Biennale of Contemporary Art, in 2001, Peter Robinson and Jacqueline Fraser (both from Ngāi Tahu) were selected to represent their country. Michael Parekowhai was chosen for the 2011 biennale. Brett Graham and Rachael Rakena were invited to exhibit in one of the biennale’s collateral events in 2007, as was Darryn George in 2013.

Source: Contemporary Māori art – ngā toi hōu, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand   

LISA REIHANA (NGĀ PUHI, NGĀTI HINE, NGĀI TU)   

MICHAEL PAREKŌWHAI (NGĀ ARIKI KAIPUTAHI, NGĀTI WHAKARONGO)   

MAUREEN LANDER (NGĀ PUHI)

BRETT GRAHAM (NGĀTI KOROKĪ KAHUKURA)     

SHANE COTTON (NGĀ PUHI)

STAR GOSSAGE (NGĀTI WAI, NGĀTI RUANUI) 

SAFFRONN TE RATANA (NGĀI TŪHOE) 

JACQUELINE FRASER (NGĀI TAHU)

SOFIA MINSON (NGĀTI POROU)

CERAMIC ARTISTS

The rise of an impressive ceramics movement is one of the more striking developments in contemporary Māori art. Clay working and firing of pottery was an ancient Pacific practice, but the knowledge had largely been lost by the ancestors of Māori before they arrived in Aotearoa.

The first Māori artist to take up the artform in modern times was Selwyn Wilson, who studied ceramics in London in 1957. Baye Riddell and Manos Nathan founded the national clay workers’ association, Ngā Kaihanga Uku, in 1986. Other key figures included Colleen Waata-Urlich, Wi Taepa and Paerau Corneal. The new tradition of Māori ceramics has drawn much inspiration from the unbroken, living traditions of First Nations American clay workers and, in the case of Waata-Urlich, ancient Lapita pottery from across the Central Pacific islands.

 Source: Contemporary Māori art – ngā toi hōu, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand  

WI TAEPA (NGĀTI PIKIAO, TE-RORO-O-TE-RANGI, TE ARAWA, TE ĀTI AWA)

PAERAU CORNEAL (TŪWHARETOA, TE ĀTI HAUNUI-A-PAPARANGI) 

COLLEEN WAATA-URLICH (TE POPOTO O NGĀPUHI KI KAIPARA, TE RARAWA) 

MANOS NATHAN (TE ROROA, NGĀPUHI, NGĀTI WHĀTUA)   

BAYE RIDDELL (NGĀTI POROU) 

PHOTGRAPHERS

FIONA PARDINGTON (NGĀI TAHU, KĀTI MĀMOE, NGĀTI KAHUNGUNU) 

NEIL PARDINGTON (NGĀI TAHU, KĀTI MĀMOE, KĀTI WAEWAE)

QIANE MATATA-SIPU (TE WAI-O-HUA, WAIKATO-TAINUI)  

This story was curated and compiled by Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa | National Library of New Zealand, Services to Schools staff, November 2020.