Sculptor’s tribute to mother

The various sculptures located throughout the Aigantighe Art Gallery Garden are on permanent display and always open to the public.

Among these is The Matriarch ,a piece by painter and sculptor, Buck Nin (b. 1942 – d. 1996). The work was produced during the International Stone Carving Symposium hosted in Maungati in 1990 and is made from Mt Somers stone sourced from Vincent Lime quarry.

Nin was born in Northland and is of Ma¯ ori and Chinese descent. He began his studies in fine art in Auckland, before transferring to Canterbury University where he earned an undergraduate degree in 1966. Later he completed a Masters of Education Administration in Hawaii then his PhD of Arts Administration and Management in the United States.

During the 1970s and 1980s Nin tirelessly campaigned to raise the profile of Ma¯ ori art to make arts more accessible to Ma¯ ori youth. In 1983 he helped to establish Te Wa¯ nanga o Aotearoa—a tertiary-level education provider grounded in indigenous principles that still operates today, with more than 30,000 students in attendance.

Nin was part of a group of Ma¯ ori artists, which included Arnold Wilson, Selwyn Muru, Sandy Adsett, Cliff Whiting and Para Matchitt, who looked to forge a new contemporary Ma¯ ori art – one that incorporated Ma¯ ori traditions with American and European art movements such as cubism and abstract expressionism.

The Matriarch is an example of this new language: it depicts a strong kuia (female elder) in a manner recalling both the whakairo (sculpture) one might see on the beams of a traditional marae (meeting house) while also giving a nod to Western art movements by distorting the figure’s face as Picasso famously did at times in his paintings.

The Matriarch was a tribute to Nin’s mother who had recently passed when he created the sculpture and to the important role women play in Ma¯ ori communities. She is wrapped in a korowai (Ma¯ ori cloak) and turns her head turn upward towards the sky – maybe looking towards a new future while wrapped in the traditions of her past.