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RALPH HOTERE
Black Light
RALPH HOTERE
Black Light
Major works including collaboration with Bill Culbert
T e Papa P res s
D u nedi n P u bli c Art G allery
CONTENTS
First published 2000; reprinted 2002
Te Papa Press, Museum of Te Papa Tongarewa, PO Box 467, Wellington
Dunedin Public Art Gallery, The Octagon, Dundein
ISBN 0–909010-69–2
vi Foreword
Editors
Cheryll Sotheran and Priscilla Pitts
Cilla McQueen, Priscilla Petts, Mary Trewby,
John Walsh and Ian Wedde
Catalogue designer
Tim James
The catalogue has been generously supported by the Jenny Gibbs
Trust, the Farmer family and Creative New Zealand.
106 History of Works
38 Dark Matter: Ralph Hotere
1 The Art of Ralph Hotere
and Language
109 Chronology
Cilla McQueen
2 Winter Chrysanthemums
Electronic prepress
Printed by Tablet Colour Print, Dunedin
72 The Catalogue
Gregory O’Brien
Ian Wedde
John Reynolds
Hughes Lithographics, Dunedin
71 Works in the Exhibition
Hotere, a viable religious art and its
traditions
vii Introduction
Picture researchers
Diana Minchall and Justin Paton
26 Tenebrae – Transfigured Night: Ralph
110 A Chronology of
48 Trouble Spots: Where is
Ralph Hotere?
10 Tiger Country: Hotere, Reinhardt
Elizabeth Kerr and Mary Trewby
Ian Wedde
129 Notes on Contributors
and the US Masters
Fancis Pound
Ralph Hotere
60 From Absence to Presence
David Eggleton
130 Index
FOREWORD
FOREWORD
Ralph Hotere: Black Light is a collaborative project
makes Ralph Hotere: Black Light an undeniably ‘big’ show.
duty and we are indebted to her. The publication would
Gregory Burke and staff of Govett-Brewster Art Gallery,
between Dunedin Public Art Gallery and the Museum
From this beginning the exhibition concept was devel-
not have been possible without the generous support
Andrea Dornauf, Chartwell Trust, and Sue Crockford,
of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The exhibition and
oped by a curatorial team of Ian Wedde and John Walsh
of Creative New Zealand, Jenny Gibbs, and the Farmer
Sue Crockford Gallery. They have been helpful with their
its accompanying publication salute the work of one of
at Te Papa and Gwynneth Porter at Dunedin Public Art
family, and we thank them most sincerely.
services and patient with the project since its inception.
New Zealand’s great artists and we are proud that our
Gallery, always with the close involvement of the artist.
respective museums have been able to collaborate so
The production of a major book on Ralph
the research for the project. We are grateful to them
for the exhibition, including Auckland Art Gallery Toi o
closely, not only with each other but also with Ralph Ho-
Hotere was always a crucial part of the project.The proj-
for sharing their memories, in particular Bishop Muru
Tamaki, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, the Chartwell Trust,
tere, on this very special project.
ect developers recognised that, despite the artist’s ma-
Walters, Shona Rapira Davies, Ross Hemera, Jacob Scott,
the Paris Family, the Hocken Library Uare Taoka o Hak-
The project also celebrates one of the most
jor reputation, such documentation remained slight. This
Gregory O’Brien, Shane Cotton, Kura Rewiri Te Waru,
ena, University of Otago, and private lenders.
significant and enduring creative friendships in this coun-
publication is therefore intended to be more than an ex-
Paratene Matchitt, Arnold Wilson, Michael Parekowhai,
try’s art history, that of Ralph Hotere and Bill Culbert.
hibition catalogue. Moving carefully between the artist’s
Keith Stewart, Andrea Hotere, Charlotte Courtney,
Queen for her assistance at every stage of the project.
Several of the major works in this exhibition – P.R.O.P.
wish for privacy and his audience’s desire for knowledge,
Steve Campbell, and Peter Campbell.
And, of course without Ralph Hotere none of this would
(1991), Pathway to the Sea – Aramoana (1991), and
it explores some of the key themes in Ralph Hotere’s art.
have been possible.
Blackwater (1999) – are the result of their marvellous
As well, it provides an informative account of his work,
several photographers have recorded Ralph Hotere in
artistic partnership.
his life, and his career. We are grateful to the essayists
his environment, with his friends and at work. Their im-
Cheryll Sotheran, Chief Executive, Te Papa
This project was formally initiated in 1995 when Ralph
David Eggleton, Cilla McQueen, Gregory O’Brien, Francis
ages have enriched this publication, and we gratefully ac-
Priscilla Pitts, Director, Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Hotere, Cheryll Sotheran and Ian Wedde of Te Papa, and
Pound and Ian Wedde for their thoughtful and illuminat-
knowledge their contribution to the book. In particular
John McCormack who was then director of Dunedin
ing texts, John Reynolds for his very special memories
we thank the artist’s old friend Marti Friedlander, whose
Public Art Gallery, met and agreed on the key concept
as related to John Walsh, and Mary Trewby and Eliza-
special sympathy with her watchful subject has resulted
of the exhibition. The focus was to be on Ralph Hotere’s
beth Kerr who produced the comprehensive illustrated
in memorable portraits. Our thanks also go to Linda
large works. While the core exhibition consists of a rela-
chronology. Mary Trewby’s meticulous care in editing the
Tyler of the Hocken Library Uare Taoka o Hakena, Chris
tively small number of works, their scale and presence
text and checking research went well beyond the call of
Saines and staff of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki,
Many people were interviewed as part of
Despite his liking for privacy, over the years
We are grateful to all those who lent works
Very special thanks are due to Cilla Mc-
VI
The Art of
RALPH HOTERE
DARK MATTER
Ralph Hotere and Language
Cilla McQueen
than
materials. Meaning is spun. There are riches: rhyme, as-
words on surfaces. Language makes arrangements. These
sonance, dissonance, melody, harmony, percussion, ono-
might be compared with the behaviour of water, an ex-
matopoeia and the mighty dimension of metaphor.
pression of energetic relations among molecules. There
is activity at the meniscus where tensions arise from op-
thesia allows me to hear the voice in it, pick up nuances.
positions juxtaposed. Understanding the singularity of
Shapes shift behind the surface. In a certain light, at a
the present moment, you invent a syntax with materials
certain angle it seems that the surface is permeable, that
close to hand. A language evolves. Becoming skilled in it,
I have gone through it and look out from within my own
you can modify, rough it up and stretch it by experiment
reflection. Night presses against the window, so open the
and exploration. Like this? Like this? Whether canvas, tim-
window. The language of darkness is active, present. If
ber, iron, steel, words or light, harmonies arise between
there is soft gold light on the surface of the glass, it is
There is more to Ralph Hotere and language
The painting puts the poem visually. Synaes-
40
Godwit / Kuaka, 1977 (detail)
Laquer on hardboard
2400 x 1200 mm
Previous page
Rosemary, 1984
Acrylic on canvas
2430 x 1820 mm
BLACK LIGHT
DARK MATTER
the reflection of a lamp or a fire. The writing, a voice, is
of the requiem mass, in the forefront of your mind since
coming from inside the painting. I enter a state of mind,
your recent use of Latin in set designs for John Whiting’s
accept an invitation.
The Devils at the Globe Theatre, blend with a chromatic
chant of grief and lamentation.
Darkness, silence, light stirring.The voice mur-
murs in Maori, in Latin; familiar, musical languages repeat-
ing litanies of concentrated thought, layers and depths of
through repetition. In this way ancestors are remem-
culture, history, whakapapa, poetry.There is silence at the
bered. Aural memory wakes to that intimate language.
end of the incantation. The darkness contains light. It is
There are tensions between the materials and what
seeded by light, not bright, more like dust scuffed across
they are made to do. For example, Polaris, 1983. Harshly
matt black. The pane tilts, colours flash through it. Hold
abraded stainless steel produces silky changing count-
it still; limitless shades of indigo hover between blue and
down sequence and the word ‘Polaris’ written in reverse,
violet. Light slides through keys as sound does, as lan-
finely scribed lines propose a permeable screen through
guage does between its shells of resonance. Chimes and
which shining tangled reflections press, to blow reversed
harmonies create a meta-language, music among strings.
out of the painting towards me like black smoke. The
41
Chant and prayer deepen the memory track
For example, in 1973 for the making of the
energy of reflected light and darkness is contained within
Founders Theatre mural your syntax involves: hardboard
a weathered timber frame.This language of light refers to
sheets on wooden frames, a spraygun and compressor,
and extends an earlier language, developing in the black
black lacquer, small paint rollers as are used to put stripes
lacquer works since the late 1960s, of light moving within
on racing cars, various cans of colours and bottles of red
and beyond and immaculate surface in the way that
wine, the Love Construction Company warehouse on
wreaths of kelp swirl and rock in the tide. The column
ing, polyvalent. From the rock at the top of Carey’s Bay
the foreshore at Port Chalmers (red brick, at the foot
of vertical line evokes an echo of the original ‘Polaris’
halfway up Otago Harbour, looking north you see hills
of the cliff). The prepared panels are sprayed with many
works painted in 1962 in which, through spattering paint,
either side enclosing the harbour and almost meeting at
coats of black lacquer, buffed and polished like beautiful
a whoosh of warning words takes off out of the frame,
its entrance, Aramoana, the pathway to the sea. On the
vehicles and striped with lines, steps in the spectrum.The
like a missile.
eastern side of the channel at the harbour mouth,Taiaroa
sleek speed of reflective surfaces parallels the speed of
In the language of corrosion, rust is to iron
Head rests on the water like a taniwha. On the western
colour in light.
as weather to wood, flame to steel, experience to the
side lie the long sand spit, the tidal flats and the township
For example, 1974. The speed of life, arrest-
human heart. The marks express the action of elements
on the beach at the foot of the cliff. The rocky coast runs
ed. The music of the composer Anthony Watson and
of the landscapes within and without. They interact, set-
west, then north.
the memory of Ana Maria Hotere haunt the ‘Requiem’
ting up disturbances, alterations. Timesteps. Light behind
works, which dwell on the infinite gradations of colour
the blade of a hill, a suspicion of light, as if a memory
high sandhill blown against the cliff. You can climb up the
within the longer wavelengths of light. Between blue and
were forming in advance. You mark the surface, leaving a
side and run down it with giant flying steps, do a drawing
indigo, indigo and violet, subtle variations of pitch and
visible impression that points beyond what can be seen.
or some big writing on it and when the wind blows it’s
mood are evoked by shining strings that advance and
A cross can be a signature, as in the Treaty of Waitangi.
a blank page again. There are mussels on the rock and
recede within reflective blackness. The sonorous words
It can also mean denial. In this language meaning is shift-
cockles at the edge of the sand flats just inside the heads.
Rock formations frame the beach and the
Left to right
Set design for The Devils, 1973
Watercolour
350 x 440 mm
Aramoana – Pathway to the Sea, 1980
Acrylic on corrigated iron, wood
2430 x 820 mm
DARK MATTER
43
As you walk over the sand at low tide, there are hills
around you – the green curves of the peninsula, Mapoutahi, and the mainland hills darker and more jagged. You
come to the cockle beds at the edge of the channel and
wiggle your gumboots in the sand. There are cockles –
feel them with the soles of your feet, dig them with your
finger and head back home with enough for a feed and
some to give away. The rich experience is not written or
shown, but underlies the language brought to bear on
the work to hand.
The sky is reflected in the shallow water just
covering the sand, which is ridged in tiny dunes and dotted with the holes of creatures breathing underneath.
The water’s surface is so still that you look down into layers of cloud – rapidly travelling white puffs close to the
surface; deeper, slower moving cumulus; the jetstream far
below, cirrus in motionless streaks. On the beach, your
mind rinsed by clean wind and wide sands, there is time
to think. Strewn with tiny shells and seaweed fragments,
the beach bears marks that might be read, in words or
music. Your steps leave a line along the sand. You narrate
at Carey’s Bay at the bright landscape through double-
your progress.
hung kauri villa windows. When you look back the other
For example, in 1981 there is a proposal to
way (as Hone Tuwhare puts it, ‘my eyeballs / roll up and
put an aluminium smelter right on top of all this beauty,
over to peer inside / myself), landscape becomes inscape.
on the salt marsh just inside the harbour heads. The con-
Looking in, you look out of a black window. The visual
Left to right
sortium puts up a large sign in the salt marsh near the
ground disappears into black, yet its signs remain like light
A return to Sangro, 1978
road to designate the area as the proposed site. You and
behind the eyes. . Words on a misted window pane. The
Acrylic on canvas
I drive there on evening with a bucket or black paint.
light inside the house casts an illuminated manuscript on
1330 x 630 mm
You get out of the car and slosh the whole lot at the
to the grass outside.The words hover, ephemeral, neither
sign. Later you put a photo of the sign though a Xerox
inside nor out.
machine and collage the Xerox with a larger painting.
The image goes through a layering process and becomes
wood fill the house at Carey’s Bay. It’s a body and soul,
Drawing for a Black Window
a language element in a ‘Black Window’.
an energy bank of line, texture, colour, the languages of
(Towards Aramoana), 1981
many different artists. Windows and doors lead inside
563 x 762 mm
You look out from the shadow of the house
Paintings, pottery and sculpture in metal and
Le Papa est mort E hinga atu ana
he tetekura, 1978
Acrylic on canvas
Acrylic, ink on paper
44
BLACK LIGHT
DARK MATTER
and outside and around the verandah that encircles the
upon it that covers earlier innocence like the shadow
back the hot white sun. These accidents, this glare, are
house, admitting leaves and birds beneath the shelter of
of a cloud. This shadow, this imprint, is a silence that is
a language. Pope Paul VI dies while we are in Avignon.
the roof.
language. Resonance, tension, multi-layered interference
The newspaper headlines blaze: ‘Le Pape Est Morte’, É
The people who object to the smelter
patterns. You are moved by the intimacy of language, the
Morto Il Papa’. Later in the year when we are staying
proposal crowd into the Aramoana hall. The hall is in
euphony of language elements spoken aloud, or seen, or
in Menorca his successor John Paul I also dies. Now the
a field. The objectors are wearing gumboots and out-
silently uttered by the voice in the mind of contempla-
headlines are in Spanish: ‘El Papa Ha Muerto’. White sun,
door clothes in contrast to the executives who enter
tive, absorbed reading.
black rocks, blue sea. You continue to paint. A part of
in business suits and sit down. The people point out the
Personal language is singular and wordless,
these surroundings, the written language of the head-
inadequacy of the proposed buffer zones between the
to begin with. It wells up and seeks expression. As if
lines enters the paintings as naturally as do the sun and
smelter and the salt marsh; that both air and water pollu-
glimpsed in the corner of the eye, it is best seized in
wind.
tion would affect the harbour as far as Dunedin; that the
the way a faint star is seen – indirectly, a mark on black
tourist and wildlife potential of the area would certainly
sky. The pattern of stars tantalisingly offers what might
guages. It has combinative power. A striking piece of
be ruined; that another large electricity-consuming indus-
be meaning within a foreign syntax of constellations. The
language can motivate a work or augment and enrich it
try would put unacceptable demands on the southern
mind conjectures possible relationships between mark
just as other chosen materials do, each bringing its own
lakes. The executives listen with abstracted expressions,
and meaning.
visual, aural and sensual connotations. These serendipi-
fend off a few hecklers and escape in a black limousine.
For example, Avignon 1978. You and I and
tous language just as syntax makes sense of the language
Nowadays in Bluff the tall chimney of the
Andrea are living in ‘Ma Villa’, a white roughcast cottage
elements. The spectral timesteps of the Godwit / Kuaka
Tiwai aluminium smelter sits bang in the middle of my
with an orange tiled roof on the Ile de la Barthelasse,
mural resonate in an endless chord.The more imperme-
view. A sprawling complex of grey metal buildings covers
a low-lying island in the middle of the Rhône. In the
able the surface the more it appears to let in light. A
a large area of the low-lying marshland on the northern
fourteenth century when the popes inhabited Avignon
language of reflected light works in complex geometries
side of the harbour heads. Form the chimney day and
there were market gardens and vineyards on the island.
of time and place. What you see is similar but not identi-
night issues a plume of smoke stained taupe with fluoride.
The ruins of the old Pont d’Avignon still stretch halfway
cal to what anyone else sees, and moreover is different
On my wall hangs a ‘Black Window’: Towards Aramoana.
across the river. Nearby there are fields of vegetables
every time.
Aluminpolitik. There is violence in the elemental action
and fruit and vineyards where we go to fill the wine
of the weather and fire on iron and wood. Torched steel,
container with rosé.
where your brother Jack is buried. The olive trees are
charred timber – a violence has been done to the ma-
The need to paint presents itself to you. You set up a
windshorn and silvery, reminiscent of manuka. This is the
terials. These language elements make strong marks. The
plein air studio under the apricot tree. Andrea reads and
second time you’ve visited the World War II graveyard:
spectre of the smelter at Aramoana melts away in the
draws at the long table under the shade of vines. I am
the first time was in 1963 with Bet when you were living
end and the place is once again quiet and safe, but not
learning to bring out my poetry. The surroundings, the
in the Alpes-Maritimes. Hundreds of impeccable white
for long. In 1990 thirteen deaths at the hands of a man
sun, deep shadows and the wind all affect our senses and
gravestones on the mown grass create strobe-like ef-
with a gun cast a heavier pall then smoke. Now Aramo-
seep into our drawing, writing, painting. The sun dries the
fects in our vision as we walk down the lines. There are
ana is in mourning and will remain untouchable. When
paint. The rain spatters it, the mistral blows debris on to
many dead in this field, all young. It doesn’t take you
Acrylic on hardboard, window frame
something violent has happened in a certain place, that
it or uplifts the whole setup and overturns it on the dry
long to find Jack’s grave again. You take the rosary your
1030 x 970 mm
place bears the imprint long afterwards.There is a gravity
grass. The canvas accepts accidents, absorbs and throws
auntie gave you and hang it around the stone. We take a
Black Window (Towards Aramoana), 1981
45
Verbal language is one among many lan-
For example, 1978 at the Sangro River,
Polaris, 1983
Laquer on stainless steel
685 x 673 mm
‘Ma Villa’ La Bathelasse, Avignon, 1978
Watercolour
330 x 240 mm
46
BLACK LIGHT
photo to send home. Then we leave the graveyard and
tion of the headland. Part of the landscape has been
go to sit under the olive trees, looking at the landscape
eliminated.
of the Sangro. It is hardly necessary to say that the plain
of white crosses is a language, that the rosary is.
had its tongue cut out. This has changed the landscape
The harbour falls silent – the headland has
The circle and the cross are timeless signs,
entirely. Half the hill has disappeared and a clay wound
basic to recognition. The arms of the cross stretch to in-
glistens in the rain. Tough white daisies cover scars even-
finity, the circle continuously renews itself point by point.
tually. Nowadays the road ends just past Bully Hayes’
The crossed circle is navigational, spacetime coordinates
flagpole, but the mind’s eye allows me farther down past
limitless. The background radiation of the universe is still
the bluestone house with the white wrought iron and
tingling. An ancient voice is awoken by the process of
around the corner to the studio perched on the point
creative work. Childlike and playful, it sings a pathway
of the headland. It is vivid, intangible. I see the hill and the
in the language of dream. Attention to this voice gives
tumbledown stables as it first was, then I see it restored
you clarity of vision and simplicity of expression. Blending
to a glowing wood interior with a wavy old brick floor.
with it is the rhythm of an incantation, since reverence
Dark red and gold, it’s like being inside a tree. A potbelly
informs the act of making. There was prayer and faith
stove, old church windows, greenery, sculptures, carv-
at Mitimiti, near where you were born, long before the
ings, pottery. A wooden staircase to an upstairs room
Church arrived. Light slows and ripples through black
with attic windows looking north to Aramoana and east
water. Molecules held in tension separate and connect
through trees to the peninsula hills. Now that building
worlds on either side of the surface. Light plays among
does not exist except in memory, yet there it stays as
buffed patterns swirling. Where do reflections lie? Do
clear as a bellbird’s song. That language.
they lie? Where exactly is the suface? Language flows
through the meniscus. A gravitational pull draws you
in to examine lichen-like minutiae of rusted iron, soft
whorls and flurries of brilliance dissolving steel, lists of infinite strings interwoven by shifting and changing forces.
Invisibly, between the lines, negative space defines positive. There are frequencies of darkness, shades and nuances of shadow. Dark matter speaks volumes.
The Wind 1 and The Wind 11, 1987
Laquer on stainless steel, cedar frame
1570 x 1440 mm
For example, in 1989 the Harbour Board un-
veils a scheme to remove the end of Observation Point
in Port Chalmers, demolishing the houses and using the
hillside as fill in order to make room for a railway line
Oputae Po-Takere, 1989
Lithograph on rice paper
512 x 654 mm
below and new land to store logs and woodchips for
export. The studio gets the chop. It is a brutal amputa-
Round Midnight, 1999
Laquer on corrigated iron, leadhead nails
2700 x 3410 mm
CHRONOLOGY
110
CHRONOLOGY
1931
1952
1958
1961
1962
1963
A son, Hone Papita Raukura (Ralph) Hotere, born to
Dunedin Teacher’s College, where he specilises in art at
Solo exhibition.
Awarded New Zealand Art Societies Fellowship for
Receives a Karolyi International Fellowship to study in
Through Countess Katherine Karolyi, meets Roland Pen-
Tangirau Hotere and Ana Maria Hotere (nee Daniels)
Dunedin School of Art (based at King Edward Techni-
Northland Art Society, Whangarei.
study in Europe. Also on board the ship to England is
Vence, South France. ‘”I am delighted at the prospect,
rose, founder of the Institute of Contemporary Arts
at Taikarawa, a few kilometres north of Mitimiti, North-
cal College) and is taught by William J Reed and Fred
Una Platts, who draws a portrait of Hotere. Studies
and I hope to do more painting in Vence than I have
(ICA), who organises Hotere’s first London exhibitions,
land.
Shewell.
painting and graphic design with Cecil Collins and Wil-
been able to do in London during the winter. I am
initially at the Redfern Gallery.
liam Turnbull at the Central School of Art, London.
thrilled at the thought of seeing some sun and sea.” Mr
1946–49
His first exhibition – at the Dunedin Public Library
St Peter’s Maori College (now Hato Petera) on
Aucklnad’s North Shore.
1950–51
Auckland Teacher’s College, taught by J D
Charlton Edgar.
– preceded by a sale of works at the Dunedin Teachers’
College. ‘Capitalising on their skill, the students, Mr J G
Ward and Mr R J Hotere, are at present holding an exhibition of their paintings – all of which are for sale – in
the entrance hall of the Training College. Out of a total
of 26 paintings on exhibition, 14 have already been sold.’
‘Unusual Venture: Exhibition of Paintings by Students’,
Otago Daily Times, 1952.
Solo exhibition
Ralph Hotere, Dunedin Public Library. Shares the space
with another 21 year old artist, John Kim.
1953
1959
Continues working as schools art advisor, now based
encouraged by Gordon Tovey.
Solo exhibition
Northland Art Society, Whangarei.
Publications
Illustrations for Te Ao Hou: The New World, a quarterly
published for the Department of Maori Affairs, Wellington. Hotere’s works appear in Te Ao Hou regularly
until 1975.
During Margaret Orbell’s editorship of Te Ao Hou
(1962–66), ‘there was an intensified interest in traditional Maori art, and an entirely new focus on the avant-
Compulsory military service; qualifies as a pilot at the
garde Maori art and artists …’ Francis Pound, The Space
Initial Training School at Taieri aerodrome, near
Between: Pakeha Use of Maori Motifs in Modernist New
Dunedin.
Zealand Art, Workshop Press, Auckland, 1994, p 124.
Joins the Education Department as schools art advisor
1960
under the Tovey Scheme, visiting schools in Auckland
and Northland. Based in the Bay of Islands.
Hotere is accompanied by his wife, formerly Miss Betty
Group shows. Summer Exhibition
Group show
Rameka, of Kaikohe.’ Resident Correspondent (London),
Redfern Gallery, London. London Group, RBA (Royal So-
Ikon Gallery, Auckland. Exhibition includes works by Ho-
‘French Sun, Sea for Maori Painter’, Otago Daily Times,
ciety of British Artists) Galleries, London. Exhibition, Royal
tere, McCahon, Brown. Contemporary New Zealand
28 March 1962.
College of Art, London.
in Auckland. Is spending more and more time painting,
Solo exhibition.
Northland Art Society, Whangarei.
Painting 1961, Auckland City Art Gallery. Includes Hotere’s Sand Dunes, Hokianga.
Spends the next two-and-a-half years travelling and exhibiting in Europe. Visits the Sangro River War Cemetry
on Italy’s Adriatic Coast, the burial site of his brother
Jack, who was killed in action in 1943. In response, begins
the ‘Sangro’ series. Also begins the ‘Polaris’ and ‘Algeria’
series.
Solo exhibition
Galérie Chandor, Touettes-sur-Loup, France. Works from
the ‘Algeria’ and ‘Woman’ series.
111
CHRONOLOGY
CHRONOLOGY
112
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
His solo exhibition at the Middlesbrough Art Gallery is
During the return voyage to New Zealand, produces a
Group shows
In the catalogue for his ‘Zero’ paintings, Hotere cites Ad
Begins the black paintings. Their exhibition at Barry Lett
series of works on paper about the Vietnam War. When
New Zealand Painting 1966, Auckland City Art Gallery,
Reinhardt, from the 1964 ICA lecture: ‘The free-est and
Galleries in Auckland attracts critical attention. From
the ship berths at Sydney, these are handed over to the
20 December – 26 January 1967. Includes Big Red X and
purest aesthetic statements of the twentieth century
it, one series of seven paintings is sold to the Govett-
Quixote Gallery for exhibition. Back in Auckland, rejoins
Vertical Orange. Hay’s Exhibition, Christchurch. Mana-
have been made in abstract painting.’
Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth – the first public
the Education Department as schools art advisor (until
watu Prize Exhibition, Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston
Solo exhibition
acquisition of his work by a public institution.
1968).
North (and touring). New Zealand Graphics, New Vision
ZERO: An exhibition of paintings, Barry Lett Galleries,
favourably reviewed by the Guardian. (The review appears on the same page as that for an exhibition at the
Whitechapel featuring early works of David Hockney
and Allen Jones.)
form of the pop art idiom many of these make use of
the stencilled numbers 22, 23, 24 and 25, the respective
ages of many of the fallen. In their own quiet, occasionally hard-edged way, many of these are undemonstratively ant-war, as are other pockets of resistance set up
in gallery 5, where Hotere shows his ten-strong tachiste
Misses the Ad Reinhardt lecture at the ICA Gallery,
London.
“white writing” Polaris series, painted at the height of the
[1962] Cuban crisis… and again in gallery 8, where there
are five blood-red bullet-shattered works… in an Alge-
Is included in an exhibition of New Zealand painters at
the Qantas Gallery, selected by Sidney Nolan.
ria series painted in Vence, the home of both the colonial
opposition and Matisse’s famous Chapel for the Dominican Convent. Hotere’s most extended series, however,
Solo exhibition
is that entitled simply “Woman”… [which] include[s] a
Ralph Hotere: Recent Work, Municipal Art Gallery, Mid-
handful of chunky, art brut figures reminiscent of Du-
dlesbrough, England 21 March – 11 April. Includes work
bruffet and one or two linear nudes that would not have
from the ‘Sangro’, ‘Polaris’ and ‘Woman’ series. (The ex-
shamed Picasso… the artist, extended over eight fair-
hibition was reported to be touring to Durham, but this
sized rooms, has accepted a challenge which many, more
did not eventuate.)
experienced than he, would have declined in haste.’ W
Group shows
Young Commonwealth Artists, Whitechapel Gallery,
Gallery, Auckland.The Red Square, Globe Theatre, Dune-
Auckland, 28 August – 8 September. Seventeen works,
Solo exhibition
‘Ralph Hotere’s return to New Zealand after four years
din. Includes some of the Vietnam works first shown in
including ten ‘Zero’ paintings.
Black Paintings / 68, Barry Lett Galleries, 19–30 August.
travelling and painting in Europe is an event of more
Sydney, plus pottery by Michael Trumic.
Group shows
Group shows
Publication
Preview 1967, Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland, 31 January
The Group Show, Canterbury Society of Arts,
Four drawings in Landfall 78, June.
– 10 February. New Zealand Prints: The Print Council of
Christchurch. Benson & Hedges Art Award, touring ex-
New Zealand, Auckland City Art Gallery, 25 September
hibition. Includes a black painting. Manawatu Prize Ex-
‘The current exhibition is entitled “The Red Square”, and
– 15 October (and touring). A Decade of New Zea-
hibition, Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North (and
it is largely his titles that give the clues to the political and
land Painting: 1958–1967, Auckland City Art Gallery, 15
touring).
anti-war intentions of the works of this particular series.
March – 30 April. Manawatu Prize Exhibition, Manawatu
With the simplest of means, he uses a plastic paint sten-
Art Gallery, Palmerston North (and touring).
than usual importance. Like Pat Hanly, his decision to return was not prompted by lack of success, but by a deep
desire to live and work in New Zealand. It would appear
that Hotere was on the verge of a major breakthrough
in the London art scene for his one-man exhibition in
Paris [sic] and London drew favourable comments from
the leading art critics. Hotere: New Paintings (exhibition
catalogue), Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland, 1965.
cilled on paper or canvas and reduces his shapes to bold,
‘In Hotere’s Black Paintings /68 exhibition, the submerged
geometric patterns of the year before have given way to
E Johnson, ‘Ralph Hotere Exhibition at Middlesbrough’,
Solo exhibition
flat, untextured, hard-edged abstract statements with the
Publication
nebulous shapes that, as the viewer moves around the
Guardian, 28 March 1964.
Hotere: New Paintings, Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland, 28
intrusion of the occasional esoteric word printed in neat
Cover for Landfall 84, December.
gallery, swirl and sway and assume new outlines beneath
June – 12 July. Includes ‘Sangro’ paintings and the ‘Human
letters.’ T[om] E[splin], ‘Paintings on Show by Maori Art-
Rights’ series.
ist’, Otago Daily Times, 7 March 1966.
black surfaces that have incredible depth and on which
‘In one of Ralph Hotere’s paintings we are shown a
have been painted a thin cruciform design that seems to
square which is not / a square. Is a diamond. In which
float on top and whose colour varies from painting to
Sangro Panel II. New Zealand Painters in London, Qantas
Group shows
there is a square. The painting is orange, but some parts
painting’. Young, Ascent Vol 1 No 3, p 16.
Gallery, London.
New Zealand Painting 1965, Auckland City Art Gallery.
are more orange than others. A green plastic strip is at-
Includes Green Square I, Green Square II and Green
tached, in which there are some numbers. 3 2 1 – the
‘Middlesbrough Art Gallery, making a bid for a niche in
Square III. Exhibition, Quixote Gallery, Sydney. New
countdown. The painting is ZERO. Or is it the square? Ei-
art history, is offering hospitality to a young Maori painter,
Zealand Graphics, New Vision Gallery, Auckland. Mid 65,
ther way, it is where we take off from.’ Mark Young, ‘Love
Ralph Hotere… [It opens with] a series of paintings… all
Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland, from 26 July.
plus Zero / no limit’, Ascent Vol 1 No 3,
London. Summer Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London
17 June – 25 September. Includes Sangro Panel 1 and
concerned with various non-figurative interpretations of
the Sangro River War Cemetery on Italy’s Adriatic Coast
where the artist’s brother and hundreds more of is fellow
servicemen lie buried. In the best and more intellectual
1969, p 15.