UPFRONT
NEWS AND EVENTS
G
ordon Walters is one of New Zealand’s most
important abstract artists. He is perhaps best
known for his paintings employing the koru- a motif drawn from a number of modes of
traditional Ma-ori artistic practice; in particular
ta-moko (tattooing) and kowhaiwhai (rafter patterns)
painting.
But the geometricised koru paintings represent less
than half of the late artist’s abstract work, and from their
perpetual dissolution of figure into ground came many
other series painted during a long and productive career.
In this selection of works presented by Auckland’s
Starkwhite at Auckland Art Fair 2018, koru works are joined
by signature works from other key series. They contain
mirror images, coloured repetitions and geometric forms
that seem to fight against each other for pictorial dominance.
Although the progress from his early landscapes, through
the development of the koru, to his late-career series, may
seem an itinerary of sharp bends and swerves, Walters in fact
followed remarkably consistent principles. All of his work
begins from and repeats what he declared in an interview
was “the one picture I am painting all the time”.
In New Zealand, recognition of the importance of Walters’
painting has been slow – the lack of critical reaction part
of the general indifference to modernist abstraction. This
selection of fine works stands as a testament that Walters
continued painting with new permutations well into the
1990s, and that he managed to produce paintings that still
retain their freshness in the 21st Century.
It is time to fully acknowledge that Walters’ pure abstract
language, his achievement in creating an infinitely variable
universe of values from an economical set of ingredients,
has significantly altered the course of modern New Zealand
painting. It is indeed an ideal moment to start collecting
his work.
❱ STARKWHITE, AUCKLAND, PRESENTS WORK BY GORDON
WALTERS AT AAF 2018, STAND B9.KORU CALLS
Laurence Simmons explains why now is the
time to collect the work of late New Zealand
abstract painter Gordon Walters.- // Gordon Walters, Construction with Pale Blue,
- Acrylic on canvas, 50.5 x 40.5cm.
- // Gordon Walters, Untitled. Acrylic on canvas,
60.5 x 50.5cm
COURTESY: THE ARTIST'S ESTATE AND STARKWHITE, AUCKLAND.
PHOTO: SAM HARTNETT
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