Ralph Hotere

Press, 28 August 1986, Page 25

Ralph Hotere

An Exhibition of Work by Ralph Hotere at the Brooke/Gifford Gallery, until September 5. Reviewed by Pat Unger. In this present show Ralph Hotere exhibits six large hanging canvases anchored to the walls of the Brooke/Gifford Gallery by lead-headed nails in mint condition, two stained-glass windows, and four working drawings for future lithographic prints. Three of the canvases verge on the magnificent, three have the impact somewhat lessened by images that sit awkwardly in their compositions and unhappily on their elegantly painted grounds. “Dawn/Water Poem,” “New York/London April ’B6” and “Empty of Shadow” give evidence of Hotere’s technical control of paint, with evocative

surfaces of dribbled and splattered red on red and red on black. His minimal but apposite words, from works by Bill Manhire, make these paintings highly charged, apocalyptic visions of emotioal and poetic intensity. The works succeed through the creation of tension-binding opposites. As unframed canvases, they are not left to hang free, but are stretched and nailed against the wall; the colours are in contradiction — red for life, black for death; the decorative surface of patterned brush work is energised by restless, flicked lines of paint, and the compositions are heightened by movements ol diagonal direction. Allusion to spirituality in a barren and armed world to mega-cities and their black denial of life

and the sweet reason of words in a world of unreason give these works a heavy, rich visual appeal in counterpoise. “Black Rainbow,” “In the Labyrinth,” and "In a Dream of Snow Falling” are less compelling works. Enlacements of snowbeautiful passages of paint plunge abruptly and are crossed by black rainbows, or fall on a white heart. This looks less like “a heart of frozen tears” or “the heart of terminal sorrow,” and more like a problem of acidosis. The rainbow, significant in peace terms, visually does not do justice to the word and has no sense of righteousness in paint. Its tarry symbolism is unmoving. Another large red heart in its sea of brilliant red seems to be too strong an image to free up a sensation of compositional stress. The heart-cross, borrowed from a church window seen in Spain, and of perhaps gipsy origin, looks more appropriate in the working drawings. The bold pencil lines, the greater use of space, the smaller size and the lack of pulsing redness reduces it to an image with less cartoon overtones. Both untitled glass windows contain panels of deeply felt colour, red and clear, red suffused over yellow, and blacksuffused red. They are striking, but again, No. 8 has design drawbacks absent in No. 7. Hotere’s concepts and the execution of them, mark him as a New Zealand artist who transcends both regional and international styles in his search for a personal vision. Even if these works are not always fully resolved within themselves, they are a pleasure to see.