‘‘Atete’’, Ralph Hotere
(Dunedin Public Art Gallery)
WHILE these exhibitions are impressive, the current jewel in the DPAG’s crown is ‘‘Atete’’, a retrospective of the work of Ralph Hotere.
‘‘Atete’’ takes the viewer through Hotere’s career from his early generic abstracts to his breakthrough, the bright dark surfaces of the minimalist Black Paintings. The austerity of these pieces is offset beautifully by the giant rainbowlike panels of Godwit/
Kuaka.
From here, we are taken through the Sangro works — a eulogy and elegy for Hotere’s brother Jack — and on to Hotere’s more political works, dealing with apartheid, peace, Maoritanga, Aramoana, and the levelling of part of Port Chalmers’ Observation Point.
Separate rooms are dedicated to Hotere’s collaboration with Bill Culbert, PROP, and to his masterpiece Black Phoenix, a stark yet cathedrallike work which simultaneously suggests the palisades of a pa and the pews of a church, set out before the cruciform lines of a boat’s prow. The combined sense of physical, political, and religious resurrection makes this one of New Zealand’s most powerful art works.
Hone Tuwhare’s poem to Hotere, which adorns the Big Wall, says it best. These are works which seem simplistic but require too much thought, yet which, when viewed, have the power to transfix and ‘‘euchre’’ the viewer.
This is a major exhibition by a major artist, and demands to be seen and contemplated.