Author Description

TURUKU TURUKI! PANEKE PANEKE! WHEN MAORI ART BECAME CONTEMPORARY commemorates and celebrates an exhibition that opened 50 years ago this year. Lacking even the simple contrivance of a title or the evidence of a curatorial hand, and presented in a somewhat obscure venue, the Princes Street Adult Education rooms at the University of Auckland, it largely came to public notice because of a brief almost serendipitous review in the Auckland Star. That modest exhibition - featuring the work of Ralph Hotere, Katerina Mataira, Muru Walters, Arnold Wilson and Selwyn Wilson - is now widely regarded as a turning point in the modern history of Maori art. This book has a visual essay of the original exhibition, as well as new essays on each of the exhibition artists.