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February 1, 2009
Ralph Hotere, who lives at Port Chalmers on the Otago Harbour, is seen as a founding figure, half a century ago, of today’s burgeoning contemporary Maori art movement and is one of New Zealand's leading painters.
Ralph Hotere, Untitled, circa 1964
The influence of traditional Maori art and of international stylistic movements are evident in his work and he often works with a range of found materials and objects typifying rural New Zealand life - including corrugated iron, nails, polished steel and wood.
Ralph Hotere, This Might Be A Double Cross Jack, 2004, Litho-drawing
Red, black and white are the colours characteristic of Hotere's practice . In Maori culture these colours are symbolic of blood, darkness and light - and are an important feature in Maori creation myths.
In the 1960s, Hotere was inspired by the work of American artist Ad Reinhardt, whose ‘black paintings’ prompted Hotere’s own series with this title. Hotere often takes the poems of New Zealand poet Bill Manhireand transformed it into a visual experience. That interaction between painted and written expression is a technique that Hotere has used since the 1960s. His compositional format recalls that of Colin McCahon (1919 1987) who also incorporated words and numbers in his art works.
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What is unusual about Hotere is that whilst he works within modernism --abstract expressionism and minimalism-- he also takes an active position in the wider realm of public opinion and politics.
He has the power to match politics effortlessly with poetics--eg., his 'Black Union Jack' series of 1981 (responding to that year's Springbok tour), to the 'Black Rainbow' series of 1985 (about French nuclear testing in the Pacific) and 1991's 'Song of Solomon' series (where Hotere tackled the Gulf War).