Ralph Hotere Port Chalmers 1989 oil based enamel and burnished steel on board signed Hotere, dated '89 and inscribed Port Chalmers in brushpoint lower left; signed Hotere, dated '89 and inscribed OPUTAE PORT CHALMERS in ink verso 645 x 705mm PROVENANCE Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from the artist, Port Chalmers, 1989.
Ralph Hotere untitled 1992 pastel and watercolour on paper signed Hotere and dated '92 in graphite lower right 755 x 525mm PROVENANCE Private collection, Christchurch. Gifted by the artist, 1992.
Ralph Hotere Port Chalmers 1984 oil-based enamel on stainless steel, Roger Hickin frame signed Hotere, dated '84 and inscribed Port Chalmers/Ninteen Eighty Four in brushpoint lower edge; signed Ralph Hotere and inscribed Port Chalmers in ink verso 770 x 770mm PROVENANCE Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, c1988. Ralph Hotere - Visual Kind of Starvation Essay by SAMANTHA TAYLOR Hone Papita Ruakura "Ralph" Hotere (Te AupÅuri, Te Rarawa) was born in Mitimiti, a small settlement on the Hokianga Harbour, Northland in 1931. He initially studied art at the Dunedin School of Art in 1952, and later was granted a fellowship that supported him to study at the Central School of Art and Design in London. He travelled through Europe and was influenced by the development of contemporary movements - pop and op art. He returned to Dunedin in 1965 and was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago in 1969. Hotere's Black Window series found its impetus in a significant event in New Zealand's cultural history: the Save Aramoana campaign that commenced in 1974 and stood in opposition to the planned construction of an aluminium smelter at the Aramoana settlement on the Otago Peninsula. The campaign was motivated by the fact that the development of the smelter would displace the communities of both Aramoana and the nearby village of Te Ngaru, and it resulted in the settlement's reactionary measure of declaring itself a sovereign state, a 'micro nation' with its own border posts and passports, on 23 December 1980. The campaign would eventually prevail over the movement to build the smelter and, to Hotere, the events that unfolded in Aramoana were significant not because of the fact that a small community eventually triumphed over a much larger oppressor, but rather because the campaign's central concern was the right of an Indigenous community to self-determination. In Hotereâ's work, the references to Aramoana do not simply refer to a conflict over an aluminium smelter. Instead, the Aramoana threat was emblematic of the plight that the tangata whenua continue to face under the system of governance imposed by the Treaty of Waitangi. Like a functional architectural window, Black Window - Mungo at Aramoana (1982) seeks to present the viewer with a carefully selected vantage on a world outside of their own immediate physical environment. The work presents a bleak outlook, with the harsh metallic picture plane against a black ground. The colour black has a ubiquitous presence in Hotere's practice - the artist's friend and colleague, Hone Tuwhare, refers to its presence as a "visual kind of starvation"¹ - and in Black Window - Mungo at Aramoana the dark matter is held up like a blockade and denies the viewer any scenery or perspective. While Ralph Hotere's practice is deeply politicised, it was not until the early 1980s, when his Black Window series was produced, that he openly engaged with contemporary political discourse. Prior to this, the concerns echoed in Black Window were present, however they were often hidden behind a complex set of reference points. For example, Hotere's Black Paintings of the late 1960s and early 1970s engaged with the aroha of the tangata whenua by constructing a waiata from abstract visual harmonics; and his Sangro series of the late 1970s engaged with the issue of self-determination by recalling the death of his brother Jack in the Second World War. Black is absolute. Set at the end of the chromatic scale, it forms the boundary to hues both warm and cold and, depending on the mattness or glossiness of its application, it can negate or synthesise colour. This idea is boldly illustrated in the lustrous lacquer surfaces that constitute Ralph Hotere's Black Paintings. This series of minimal, emblematic paintings engaged with many of the formal devices that would become defining features of the artist's practice. In Hotere's Black Paintings, line, colour and black harmoniously converge to create a works of exquisite detail and beauty. Hotere's Black Window paintings were a departure from his earlier practice because their message was not infused into lush visual heraldry. Rather than quietly persuading the viewer as to the merits of its cause, Black Window - Mungo at Aramoana gives physical form to the unequal power relationship that is the basis of New Zealand's nationhood. Mungo National Park is a protected reserve in South Western New South Wales, Eastern Australia. Here significant archaeological discoveries of ancient human remains have taken place, termed the 'Mungo Man' and the 'Mungo Lady'; the Mungo Lady is one of the world's oldest cremations. "Hotere visited the site in 1982 with a group of archaeologist friends. The names and colours of the gold, red ochre and grey layers of sand that have formed on the lakeshore find their way into Hotere's images: Mungo, Zanci, Gol Gol."² The reference to this ancient being is perhaps a comment on our temporal existence: the fiery inferno of the aluminium smelter a cremation of atoms and transformation. Port Chalmers (1984) is a slightly later work that, like many of his works that year, riffs off George Orwell's classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The steel surface of this work is glossy in areas, reflecting the viewer; in other areas an expressive burnishing creates a charged energy - perhaps symbolic of Orwell's dystopia and a reflection of political issues that were infiltrating the artist's thoughts. Nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll would inspire another series of works that started in 1984. Through all of Hotere's works we see a deep connection to Aotearoa and the land here, his works offer a window into his poetic understanding of the world around him. This glimpse of understanding also poses a line of questioning in which his highly reflective surfaces will sit before us as a mirror, forcing the viewer to be within and seek beyond the work before them. 1 Hone Tuwhare, Deep River Talk: Collected Poems, (Auckland: Godwit Press, 1993) 51. 2 Kriselle Baker, Ralph Hotere, (Auckland: Ron Sang Publications, 2008,) 169.
Ralph Hotere Black Window - Mungo at Aramoana 1982 oil based enamel on board; villa sash window frame signed Hotere, dated '82 and inscribed Port Chalmers in brushpoint lower right; inscribed BLACK WINDOW in brushpoint upper left; inscribed MUNGO at Aramoana in brushpoint lower left; inscribed 22 1/4/34 in ink verso 1040 x 660mm PROVENANCE Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Brooke/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, 1982. EXHIBITIONS Towards Aramoana, Black Windows, Brook/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, 1982. Ralph Hotere - Visual Kind of Starvation Essay by SAMANTHA TAYLOR Hone Papita Ruakura "Ralph" Hotere (Te AupÅuri, Te Rarawa) was born in Mitimiti, a small settlement on the Hokianga Harbour, Northland in 1931. He initially studied art at the Dunedin School of Art in 1952, and later was granted a fellowship that supported him to study at the Central School of Art and Design in London. He travelled through Europe and was influenced by the development of contemporary movements - pop and op art. He returned to Dunedin in 1965 and was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago in 1969. Hotere's Black Window series found its impetus in a significant event in New Zealand's cultural history: the Save Aramoana campaign that commenced in 1974 and stood in opposition to the planned construction of an aluminium smelter at the Aramoana settlement on the Otago Peninsula. The campaign was motivated by the fact that the development of the smelter would displace the communities of both Aramoana and the nearby village of Te Ngaru, and it resulted in the settlement's reactionary measure of declaring itself a sovereign state, a 'micro nation' with its own border posts and passports, on 23 December 1980. The campaign would eventually prevail over the movement to build the smelter and, to Hotere, the events that unfolded in Aramoana were significant not because of the fact that a small community eventually triumphed over a much larger oppressor, but rather because the campaign's central concern was the right of an Indigenous community to self-determination. In Hotereâ's work, the references to Aramoana do not simply refer to a conflict over an aluminium smelter. Instead, the Aramoana threat was emblematic of the plight that the tangata whenua continue to face under the system of governance imposed by the Treaty of Waitangi. Like a functional architectural window, Black Window - Mungo at Aramoana (1982) seeks to present the viewer with a carefully selected vantage on a world outside of their own immediate physical environment. The work presents a bleak outlook, with the harsh metallic picture plane against a black ground. The colour black has a ubiquitous presence in Hotere's practice - the artist's friend and colleague, Hone Tuwhare, refers to its presence as a "visual kind of starvation"¹ - and in Black Window - Mungo at Aramoana the dark matter is held up like a blockade and denies the viewer any scenery or perspective. While Ralph Hotere's practice is deeply politicised, it was not until the early 1980s, when his Black Window series was produced, that he openly engaged with contemporary political discourse. Prior to this, the concerns echoed in Black Window were present, however they were often hidden behind a complex set of reference points. For example, Hotere's Black Paintings of the late 1960s and early 1970s engaged with the aroha of the tangata whenua by constructing a waiata from abstract visual harmonics; and his Sangro series of the late 1970s engaged with the issue of self-determination by recalling the death of his brother Jack in the Second World War. Black is absolute. Set at the end of the chromatic scale, it forms the boundary to hues both warm and cold and, depending on the mattness or glossiness of its application, it can negate or synthesise colour. This idea is boldly illustrated in the lustrous lacquer surfaces that constitute Ralph Hotere's Black Paintings. This series of minimal, emblematic paintings engaged with many of the formal devices that would become defining features of the artist's practice. In Hotere's Black Paintings, line, colour and black harmoniously converge to create a works of exquisite detail and beauty. Hotere's Black Window paintings were a departure from his earlier practice because their message was not infused into lush visual heraldry. Rather than quietly persuading the viewer as to the merits of its cause, Black Window - Mungo at Aramoana gives physical form to the unequal power relationship that is the basis of New Zealand's nationhood. Mungo National Park is a protected reserve in South Western New South Wales, Eastern Australia. Here significant archaeological discoveries of ancient human remains have taken place, termed the 'Mungo Man' and the 'Mungo Lady'; the Mungo Lady is one of the world's oldest cremations. "Hotere visited the site in 1982 with a group of archaeologist friends. The names and colours of the gold, red ochre and grey layers of sand that have formed on the lakeshore find their way into Hotere's images: Mungo, Zanci, Gol Gol."² The reference to this ancient being is perhaps a comment on our temporal existence: the fiery inferno of the aluminium smelter a cremation of atoms and transformation. Port Chalmers (1984) is a slightly later work that, like many of his works that year, riffs off George Orwell's classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The steel surface of this work is glossy in areas, reflecting the viewer; in other areas an expressive burnishing creates a charged energy - perhaps symbolic of Orwell's dystopia and a reflection of political issues that were infiltrating the artist's thoughts. Nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll would inspire another series of works that started in 1984. Through all of Hotere's works we see a deep connection to Aotearoa and the land here, his works offer a window into his poetic understanding of the world around him. This glimpse of understanding also poses a line of questioning in which his highly reflective surfaces will sit before us as a mirror, forcing the viewer to be within and seek beyond the work before them. 1 Hone Tuwhare, Deep River Talk: Collected Poems, (Auckland: Godwit Press, 1993) 51. 2 Kriselle Baker, Ralph Hotere, (Auckland: Ron Sang Publications, 2008,) 169.
Ralph Hotere Port Chalmers gouache on paper signed Hotere and inscribed Port Chalmers in ink lower right 385 x 585mm PROVENANCE Private collection, Auckland.
Ralph Hotere Port Chalmers 1981 pastel, oil based enamel and ink on paper signed Hotere, dated 81 and inscribed Port Chalmers in ink upper left 380 x 280mm PROVENANCE Private collection, Auckland.
Ralph Hotere Song Cycle 1975 ink and gouache on paper signed Hotere, dated '75 and inscribed SONG CYCLE in graphite lower edge; inscribed Cat no 7/Vic University/Title SONG CYCLE/55 x 41 cm in ink verso 550 x 400mm PROVENANCE Private collection, Wellington. Acquired from Victoria University Library, Wellington, c1977.
RALPH HOTERE (1931 - 2013) Ekore Au E Ngaro He Kakano I Ruiruia Mai I Rangiatea/ I will Never be Lost The Seed was Sown Even in Rangiatea, Mixed media on paper, Signed, inscribed & dated 1972, 59 x 39cm
RALPH HOTERE (1931 - 2013) Drawing for Ian Wedde's Pathway to the Sea, Watercolour, Signed, inscribed Drawing for Ian Wedde's Pathway to the Sea, Port Chalmers & dated 1975, 56 x 76cm
RALPH HOTERE, (New Zealand 1931 – 2013), BIKO, Dyed silk scarf, Signed, inscribed & dated 1988 Hotere's BIKO works embody the outwards looking socio-political agenda which underpinned the artist's practice throughout his entire career. Steve Biko was a South African anti-apartheid activist who, following his imprisonment and torture, died at the hands of the Afrikaner police in 1977, an event which sparked international outrage. Hotere's response to this tragic death is powerful: these works lay forth a simple, elegiac tribute in which Biko's name is boldly and spiritedly delineated. The banner form of these works necessarily calls to mind the protest sign, a point of particular relevance given Hotere's involvement in the anti-Springbok protests several years earlier.
RALPH HOTERE (1931 - 2013) Oputae Observation Point Series Blow torched corrugated baby iron & lead head nails Oputae Observation Point Series 71 x 60cm
Ralph Hotere 1931-2013-Pine 9-In your Wrists Mixed media on paper 54.0x38.0 Signed, inscribed & dated 1979 Bill Manhire, who provided the texts for Hotere's Pine works, recalls the genesis of that particular collaboration; At one stage, while I was living in London in the early 70s, I sent Ralph a piece of poetry each week Every so often I would put in the mail a postcard with the word PINE on it-plus a line [of poetry]àRalph did a series of works-mostly stuff on paper- using bits of that text I've always found pine forests really scary and interesting in the way that Janet Frame did There was always a plantation near where we were living when I was a child In that forest the sound quality changed-it was scary and safe all at once.-cathedral, underwater stuff That was what was in my mind when I wrote the wordsà The Pine works on paper divide into two series, the first a group of 1972 watercolours which are among Hotere's most lyrical worksàThe word PINE surfaces in each image, as well as an assortment of lines from Manhire and a series of numbers, 1-XlV, which gives the works a ritualistic feeling A more robust-looking sequence of Pine images, from a year or two later, used woodblock-printed letters as structural elements in a manner more akin to McCahon although, again, the layering of word on top of word made for a more patterned effect These banner-like configurations of words, which the artist printed on the Royal Columbian hand press at the Bibliography Room at the University of Otago, also echo the artist's early Pop Art and Op Art influences, the handwritten words offsetting the weighty printed letters with hazy graffiti Some of the printed letters are damaged, smudged, or they look as if they have been eroded by chemicals or the elements As always, Hotere's interest in textures and the imperfections in finish is integral to the complexity and allusiveness he requires of his often minimal visual elements Hotere exploits the multiple meaning of 'pine', letting the word commute betwee n the natural world and the world of human emotions and expression Ian Wedde wrote in the Evening Post in 1990: Hotere has run whole series of puns off titles, and whole series and re-series of works off puns Because of the silence in the ground of his work, the gestures (the speech) that play upon that silence can do much with very littleà The serious aspect of word play is a given of twentieth century literature with such pioneering figures as James Joyce and Gertrude Stein fracturing both the sound and sense of words and phrases to realise new, unpredictable forms Hotere recognises the potentiality of even the simplest puns-witness the Pine series and, just as spectacularly, the earlier Malady paintings His works attest to the capacity of language to subvert our expectations, to alter the way we perceive reality Gregory O'Brien: HOTERE-Out The Black Window: Ralph Hotere's work with New Zealand Poets, Godwit, City Gallery, Wellington, 1997, Chapter 6: Empty of shadows and making a shadow p 49 and 51
Ralph Hotere 1931-2013-La Mort a les Couleurs du Paon (Death wear the colours of a peacock) Lithograph with hand applied blue,red,purple,gold and green inks, edition of 14 53.5x37.5 Signed, inscribed & dated 1985
Ralph Hotere 1931-2013-Drawing for Song Cycle Dance Watercolour and ink on paper 25.0x18.5 Signed, inscribed & dated 8-75 Inscribed: Dance-John Casserley, Chas Hummell Music-Jack Body, Barry Mangan Poems-Bill Manhire Photography John McKechnie
Ralph Hotere 1931-2013-Drawing for Song Cycle Ink on paper 27.5x17.5 Signed, inscribed & dated 8-75 Inscribed: Dance-John Casserley, Chas Hummell Music-Jack Body, Barry Mangan Poems-Bill Manhire A wind goes out over the fields A shadow grows where I touch you What is this distance? Whose hand is gently waving? Manhire
Ralph Hotere 1931-2013-Drawing for Sound Movement Theatre-Song Cycle Anatomy of a Dance Ink and lithograph on paper 25.0x18.5 Signed, inscribed & dated 8-75 inscribed & dated 8-75 Inscribed: Dance-John Casserley, Chas Hummell, K Suhadji Music-Jack Body, Barry Mangan Poems-Bill Manhire
