Ralph Hotere

Ralph Hōtere was one of New Zealand’s most important late twentieth-century artists. He began as a painter with a strong drawing practice, later moving into sculpture and installation. His work reflected an abstract aesthetic, often characterised by an emphasis on the colour black, the use of crosses, circles and lines, and the incorporation of the stencilled and handwritten words of poets. Many of his later works were collaborations with the artist Bill Culbert, who worked with light. Hōtere was well-known for using power tools, applying industrial techniques to his artworks, for his innovative use of materials and his ability, as poet Ian Wedde put it, to show ‘the intelligence in ordinary things’. His Catholic upbringing and Māori heritage underpinned much of his work, which frequently protested against injustice, war, human rights violations, colonisation, and industrial and environmental catastrophe. Art historian Jonathan Mane-Wheoki placed him ‘at the forefront of mainstream New Zealand art history. But in a sense he also stands outside of it, both as a Māori and as one of the most cosmopolitan, sophisticated, international artists New Zealand has yet produced.’²