Name Robin White | Role Artist | |
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New zealand artist robin white part 1 the collaboration a new garden
Dame Robin Adair White, DNZM (born Te Puke, 1946) is a New Zealand painter and printmaker, recognised as a key figure in the regionalist movement of 20th century New Zealand art.
Contents
- New zealand artist robin white part 1 the collaboration a new garden
- Robin white new zealand artist lives 17 years on kiribati pacific island
- Early life
- Education
- Career
- Recent exhibitions
- Awards and recognitions
- Further information
- References
Robin white new zealand artist lives 17 years on kiribati pacific island
Early life
White grew up in Epsom, New Zealand, a suburb of Auckland, the youngest of seven children. Her father, a builder, was of Māori descent.
Education
White completed a Diploma of Fine Arts at Elam School of Fine Arts in 1967. Along with her contemporaries Richard Killeen and Ian Scott, White was taught by Colin McCahon at Elam and has cited him as an important influence on her development as commitment as an artist.
Career
After art school White moved to Bottle Creek, Paremata in 1969, and taught art at Mana College. Here White taught herself to screenprint, motivated by a desire to make her art more accessible and affordable. She has frequently reproduced her oil paintings (such as Mangaweka (1973) in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa) as prints. While at Bottle Creek White befriended local writers, including Sam Hunt, Fleur Adcock and Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, and historian Michael King.
Art historian Jill Trevelyan notes that it was while living at Bottle Creek that White developed her characteristic style, as she ‘began to paint the local landscape using crisp, rhythmic outlines, strong light, and flat blocks of colours’. White became well known for these works, which often depicted scenes of small town life, such as flat-bed trucks fish and chip shops.
White is also a member of the Bahá'í Faith. In 1972 White moved to Portobello, near Dunedin, where she met her husband, also a member of the religion.
In 1982 White and her family moved to the Republic of Kiribati, living on the island of Tarawa and working with the Baha’i community. Here she continued to make art, working almost entirely in woodcut prints as materials for this method were the most readily available. White returned to New Zealand in 1999 and is now based in Masterton, where she continues to work with weavers and artists from around the Pacific.
In 2011 White was one of nine New Zealand and Australian artists selected to take part in the ‘Kermadecs’ research trip and exhibition project, organised by the Pew Research Centre. White’s collaborative exhibition of monumental ngatu (painted tapa) works, made with Tongan artist Ruha Fifita and a group of Tongan women, showed at Pataka Art + Museum in 2014.
White has represented New Zealand at a number of international exhibitions including the sixth International Biennale of Sydney and the first Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane. In 2009 she was featured in the sixth Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.
Recent exhibitions
Awards and recognitions
In 2003 White was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
In 2012 White received a University of Auckland Distinguished Alumni Award.