February 21, 2022
Māori gallery adds mana to Hundertwasser centre
The curator of the first show at the new Wairau Māori Art Gallery at Whangarei’s Hundertwasser Art Centre says the whole complex is a tribute to the late artist’s vision.
The centre opened yesterday, 30 years after Friedensreich Hundertwasser first sketched out plans for a centre to show not only his own work but the best of Māori art.
Nigel Borrell says the Austrian-born artist could see how the Māori contribution would add mana to the enterprise.
“Because Hundertwasser himself was very much about the land and about Māori culture being an essential part of it, those that knew him and knew of his way of living, his own philosophies, realised the importance that he held Māori culture and Māori art in that thinking,” Mr Borrell says.
The opening show, Hundertwasser in New Zealand 1973 – 2000, includes 80 original paintings, graphic works, tapestries, applied art, original posters and architectural models.