Maori gallery needed—artist

Press, 10 October 1984, Page 18

Maori gallery needed —artist

From DIANA DEKKER in London A separate gallery for Maori art in New Zealand is necessary to establish a strong national identity, according to a Wellington artist, Darcy Nicholas.

Mr Nicholas is in London after nearly two months in North America on a Fulbright Cultural Award. The need for a separate gallery had been brought home to him even more firmly on his travels, he said.

He believed the national art gallery in Wellington should ideally have displayed Maori art and then shown what came into the country in the way of European art after that, but it started off in reverse. Mr Nicholas, director of

the Wellington arts centre trust, said he was aware that the possibility of incorporating Maori art in the new National Art Gallery in Wellington had been looked at and the possibilities were good.

Mr Nicholas said that Maori art was continually changing but was definitely not encouraged in New Zealand.

He had seen parallels in the United States between some aspects of the development of Maori art and native American art.

“You have highly educated and sophisticated native American artists who can move between two worlds. The Indians see them as Indians and a lot of Americans see them as hav-

ing been assimilated into Anglo-culture. The situation is the same in New Zealand.

“There is not a great deal of room to experiment with traditional art in the United States but some native Americans still working from their culture use very modern ideas with which to express it. There are others who have completely gone in different directions with no consideration for their culture. It is the same in New Zealand with Maori art, he said. “Our country should encourage contemporary Maori art. There is too much emphasis on traditional Maori art forms.”

Maori artists, he said, should be “allowed to grow and participate in the dynamics of a growing country. This would be

helped by the establishment of a separate art gallery for Maori art showing its development from traditional through to contemporary. Maori art, he said, should be exposed to the public more in public galleries. All New Zealand embassies should reflect something of the changing face of Maori art and Maori expression. Many people had no idea of contemporary Maori art at the moment because it was not shown. When it was shown, it was often unfortunately anti-establishment art, like Merata Mita’s movie “Patu” which was shown at the Edinburgh festival.

An exhibition of 14 of Darcy Nicholas’s paintings was held in London at the Aspinall Curzon Club last week.