Untitled (no date)

Kei roto i ngā peita a Buck Nin te nui o te wehenga o te Māori ki te tāone – te whakarere i ngā papa kāinga taiwhenua hei whai i te mātauranga me te whai rawa o ngā tāonenui taurikura o Aotearoa. Kei te whakaaturia tēnei āhuatanga e Nin hei pae tawhiti whakatuatea e noho nei te ahumahi me te ao hurihuri. Kitea ai tēnei āhuatanga i roto i a *Untitled*, circa 1976, e whakaatu ai i te rārangi o te taharangi pango e whatia ana e tētahi kāhui rārangi mahake hei tohu mō te tāonenui. Ko tētahi atu āhuatanga motuhake mō ngā peita a Nin ko tōna tino rata ki ngā tauira o te kōwhaiwhai. Whakanikohia ai āna peita ki ngā kōwhaiwhai, arā he kōriporipo harikoa, he hoahoa whakapau kaha iti noa, e tipu ai i runga i te kānawehi. I roto i tēnei peita ka ara ake i te taharangi hei whatunga manganga e rite ana te āhua ki te waka – e kawe nei i tētahi whakatipuranga hou, i ō rātou whakaaro, i ō rātou wawata. Ko *Untitled* tētahi tauira ihiihi mō ēnei āhuatanga motuhake e rua ōna, ka mutu ko rāua te arotahinga kotahi o tēnei peita mutunga kē mai o te pai.

Buck Nin often recalled the significance of the Māori urban drift in his paintings – the leaving of rural homelands in search of education and economic prospects in the booming city centres of Aotearoa New Zealand. This is portrayed in Nin’s work as an ominous distant horizon, where industry and modernity reside. We see this in *Untitled*, circa 1976, where a black horizon line is interrupted by a tiny cluster of broken lines representing the city scape. The other signature element in Nin’s painting practice was his love of kōwhaiwhai (rafter painting) patterning. They seem to adorn his paintings as joyful flurries of effortless design that grow on the canvas. In this painting they rise up above the horizon into a complex network of forms which resemble a waka (canoe) – a vessel bringing forth a new generation of Māori and their ideas and aspirations. *Untitled* is a powerful example of Nin’s primary considerations in painting.

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