Hotere was born in Mitimiti, close to the Hokianga Harbour in the Northland Region, one of 15 children.[4] When Hotere was 9, his older brother Jack enlisted in the army. Jack was killed in action in Italy in 1943.
In 1961 Hotere gained a New Zealand Art Societies Fellowship and travelled to England where he studied at the Central School of Art and Design in London. During 1962–1964 he studied in France and travelled around Europe, during which time he witnessed the development of the Pop Art and Op Art movements.[citation needed] His travels took him, among other places, to the war cemetery in Italy where his brother was buried. This event, and the politics of Europe during the 1960s, had a profound effect on Hotere's work, notably in the Sangro series of paintings.[5]
Return to New Zealand
Ralph Hotere at his Port Chalmers studio, 1981
Hotere returned to New Zealand and exhibited in Dunedin in 1965, and returned to the city in 1969 when he became the University of Otago's Frances Hodgkins Fellow. At about that time he began to introduce literary elements to his work. He worked with poets such as Hone Tuwhare and Bill Manhire to produce several strong paintings, and produced other works specifically for the New Zealand literary journal Landfall. Hotere also worked in collaboration with other prominent artists, notably Bill Culbert.[4] Hotere moved to Carey's Bay in Port Chalmers in 1969, spending most of his life in the town.[5]
From the 1970s onward, Hotere was noted for his use of unusual tools and materials in creating his work, notably the use of power tools on corrugated iron and steel within the context of two-dimensional art.[citation needed]
From 1968,[4] Hotere began the series of works with which he is perhaps best known, the Black Paintings. In these works, black is used almost exclusively. In some works, strips of colour are placed against stark black backgrounds in a style reminiscent of Barnett Newman. In other black paintings, stark simple crosses appear in the gloom, black on black. Though minimalist, the works, as with those of most good abstractionists, have a redolent poetry of their own. The simple markings speak of transcendence, of religion, or peace.[citation needed]
Black Phoenix
The themes of the black paintings extended to later works, notably the colossal Black Phoenix (1984–88), constructed out of the burnt remains of a fishing boat.[6] This major installation incorporates the prow of the boat flanked by burnt planks of wood. Other planks form a pathway leading the prow. Each plank has had a strip laid bare to reveal the natural wood underneath beneath. Several of the boards are inscribed with a traditional Maori proverb, Ka hinga atu he tete-kura haramai he tete-kura ("As one fern frond (person) dies - one is born to take its place").[6] A slight change has been made in the wording of the proverb, replacing haramai (transfer, pass over) to ara mai (the path forward), possibly indicating the cleared pathway of bare wood in front of the boat's burnt prow. The work measures 5m by 13m by 5.5m.[6]
Politics were entwined in the subject matter of Hotere's art from an early stage. Hotere's Polaris series was a response to the 1984 threat of nuclear warheads due to the Polaris programme.[5] When Aramoana, a wetland near his Port Chalmers home, was proposed as the site for an aluminium smelter, Hotere was vocal in his opposition, and produced the Aramoana series of paintings.[5] Similarly, he produced series protesting against a controversial rugby tour by New Zealand of apartheid-era South Africa (Black Union Jack) in 1981, and the sinking of theGreenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior (Black rainbow) in 1985. Later, his reactions to Middle East politics resulted in works such as Jerusalem, Jerusalem and This might be a double cross jack.[citation needed]
Later life
In 1992, Hotere transformed the RKS Gallery in Wellington with an exhibition utilising kilometres of number 8 wire.[5]
Hotere's work was slowed by a stroke in 2001, but he continued to create and exhibit regularly until his death in February 2013.[7]
He married three times, with two of his wives also being artists. His second wife was artist and poet Cilla McQueen, whom he married in 1973, and with whom he moved to Careys Bay near Port Chalmers in 1974. The two separated amicably during the 1990s.[4] Hotere later married Mary McFarlane, another notable artist, in February 2002.[10]
Hotere died on 24 February 2013, aged 81 and was survived by his daughter Andrea, three mokopuna (grandchildren) and also his third wife Mary.[7] He was buried at Mitimiti.
Hotere Garden Oputae
Hotere's former studio was on land at the tip of Observation Point, the large bluff overlooking the Port Chalmers container terminal. When the port's facilities were expanded, part of the bluff was removed, including the area of Hotere's studio (after strenuous objection from many of the town's residents). Part of the bluff close to the removed portion is now an award-winning sculpture garden, the Hotere Garden Oputae, organised in 2005 by Hotere and featuring works by both him and by other noted New Zealand modern sculptors.[11] Other sculptors with work in the garden include Russell Moses, Shona Rapira Davies, and Chris Booth.[12]
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ralph Hotere.
^"Ralph Hotere". Auckland Art Gallery. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
^ abcdeEntwisle, Peter (2 March 2013). "Never lost ability to surprise the public". Otago Daily Times. p. 36.
^ abcdeCaughey, Elizabeth; Gow, John (1997). Contemporary New Zealand Art 1. Everbest Printing. pp. 8–13. ISBN1-86953-218-X.
^ abcdeMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (2005). Treasures from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. 79: Te Papa Press. ISBN1-877385-12-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
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