Waipuna

Ko Sandy Adsett te ringa toi e rongonui nei i roto i te ao toi Māori mō tōna kaha ki te whakaora i te kōwhaiwhai tawhito, nāna anō taua toi i kawe ake ki te toi Māori o nāianei. Nā āna peita o ngā tau whakamutunga o 1960 me te tīmatanga o ngā tau 1970 i whakaara ai ngā kōrerorero mō te kōwhaiwhai i Aotearoa nei; he whakauru i te tae muramura me te tikanga peita rārangi i takea mai i te papamuri pango kē, ehara i te mā, ka hua te tae kiato. I whakangungua a Adsett i raro i te maru o Gordon Tovey rāua ko Pine Taiapa i roto i te akoranga mātanga toi o ngā tau waenga-1960; i pīrangi ia ki te whakarere i te peita tirohanga whānui me te ata toka kia rapu atu i tētahi mahi kōhure e rata ai ia – ko tētahi mea Māori – ā, ko te kōwhaiwhai tērā. I ēnei rā e whakanuihia ana tōna ōhākī hei mātanga he kaiwhakatae, he mahi kōwhaiwhai. Ko tā ngā tauira e rima e whakaaturia ana ki konei, he whakatewhatewha i te hōputu tapawhā ōrite, hōputu porotaka mai i te mutunga o ngā tau 1970 ki ngā tau 1980. He tauaro ngā rārangi tae – he angiangi, he manganga, ki ngā āpure tohu koru ka hua ko te tāera kōwhaiwhai nō te ringa toi anō.

Sandy Adsett championed the revival of customary kōwhaiwhai (rafter painting), bringing it into the terrain of contemporary Māori art. His paintings of the late 1960s and early 1970s brought a new vitality to the conversation of kōwhaiwhai painting in New Zealand incorpoarting vibrant colour, line and painting technique that involved building up from a black ground, as opposed to white, producing a density of colour. Originally trained under Gordon Tovey and Pine Taiapa in the specialist arts advisory programme of the mid-1960s, Adsett was interested in breaking away from landscape and still-life painting in search of a more distinct practice that he could connect with – one that was Māori – and this was kōwhaiwhai. Today Adsett’s legacy as an expert colourist and kōwhaiwhai practictioner is widley celebrated. The five examples presented here show his investigations of the square and circular format from the late 1970s through the 1980s. They contrast fine intricate lines of colour with bold fields of koru (unfurling fern frond) motifs to present a style of kōwhaiwhai that is the artist’s own.

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