2 minute read

Plates 160 Lots

from Select, June 2023

by Webb's Auction House

from Select, June 2023, page 15

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NOTE

Dame Robin White (Ngāti Awa) is widely recognised as one of Aotearoa’s most celebrated artists. White studied at Elam School of Fine Arts in the 1960s, where she was taught by Colin McCahon. In her earlier works, White’s focus on small-town, rural New Zealand, and her hard-edged, realist style established her as a key figure in the 1970s regionalist movement. White’s distinctive artworks are rooted in the artistic lexicon of New Zealand and are sought avidly by public and private collectors alike.

The choice of relocating to Kiribati, a group of atolls in the Pacific, inspired a profound change in White’s practice. Driven by necessity due to the equatorial conditions, and drawing on her cross-cultural lived experiences, White turned to hand-coloured woodcut prints, as they were a more manageable artform and wood was an easily obtained resource.

White’s new way of life in Kiribati consequently stylistically shifted to creating rudimentary stylised compositions featuring captioned text to further detail the scene. White sought a compassionate thread within her art; the prints are an example of how she wove principles from Western and Moana Oceania art practices in harmony. The prints emphasise White’s environmental concerns of the land its ecology.

Her compositions recount everyday life, depicting the people White met, and how her everyday environment came to inspire her practice. In these flat, colourful renderings, we see a parallel with White’s regionalist paintings, and the common narrative thread of exploring the land and lives of people.

White’s works, such as those offered here, are rich with lived experiences. In each of the four prints, there is a nod to the landscape and the local people – here, Florence and Brigid – who were an active part of White’s life. Flora and fauna, as well as conch shells and sea scallops, frame the images, grounding them in the Pacific.

These works are an excellent example of the pivot White’s practice undertook, and of her fluidity as an artist.