Artist Sandy Adsett is a talisman in the country's Māori art scene.
Artist Sandy Adsett is a talisman in the country's Māori art scene.
Toi Koru, an exhibition surveying the career of one of the modern masters of Māori art, is on at Te Manawa Art Gallery.
Dr Sandy Adsett has been called “the master of colour and kōwhaiwhai” and “one of the most significant and respected Māori artists of his generation”.
Toi Korufeatures artworks drawn from the collections of Te Papa and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, as well as new paintings created for this exhibition.
Adsett is not afraid to deconstruct tradition. Trained in classical Māori art, he has been able to iterate on the forms of the 19th century and earlier to create new kōwhaiwhai patterns. His painting also shows influences from Western abstract artists such as Mondrian and Kandinsky.
Yet the cultural meaning and significance of the symbols and colours in his work are never lost. By extending the vocabulary of kōwhaiwhai, Adsett has laid strong foundations for a new generation of Māori artists.
There is an intricacy to these paintings that is not immediately apparent. From across the gallery can be seen arrow-straight lines and crisp divisions between colours, yet as the viewer approaches, more detail unfolds, like a fractal. Even the tiniest brushstroke is revealed to be deliberate.
The works in Toi Koru range from 1969 to the present day and encompass a number of stylistic evolutions that reflect changes in Adsett’s own life. For instance, his move from Gisborne to Hastings in 2003 saw him shift from complex compositions of vibrant colour to more minimalist themes painted in mostly black and white. It’s likely this was inspired by the style in which nearby marae were being restored.
