December 15, 2022
Multi-talented Muru’s life work a challenging look
The curator of a major survey of the work of artist Selwyn Muru says it was a chance to show the breadth of activity of someone who’s been described as one of the most original Māori thinkers of his generation.
A Life’s Work is on at the New Zealand Portrait Galley in Wellington until February, and it will go on to the Pah Homestead in Auckand and the Millenium Gallery in Blenheim.
Moana Nepia says Te Hapua-born Muru, from Te Aupouri and Ngāti Kuri, was not only a painter and sculptor but also a ground-breaking broadcaster in radio and television, a writer of scripts for stage and screen, a musician and an educator, teaching whakorero and the University of Auckland’s Maori studies department at the same time as he created a Maori-focused stream at the university’s Elam school of fine arts.
The now 85-year-old has never had a major retrospective about his work.
“I wonder if its because of the complexity – and not very many people have been able to grips on the breadth of his accomplishments; they may know him know him in one or another field of expertise but not have a real sense of his multiple talents that make him this iconic figure,” Mr Nepia says.
A book about Selwyn Muru’s life’s work is set for publication in 2023.