Kohatu

Also known as a broadcaster, poet and actor, (Frederick) Selwyn Murupaenga was the first contemporary Māori artist to have a work acquired by the National Art Gallery. Kohatu, painted in 1965, was shown in the Manawatu Prize for Contemporary Art exhibition in Palmerston North, from where it was purchased for the national collection.

In te reo Māori, kohatu means stone. Built up from thickly textured layers of ochre paint, the surface of Kohatu is evocative of a cave interior. To this, Muru applied images abstracted from the rock art of the South Island’s Waitaha people, the oldest art forms in New Zealand. Muru used the rock art to evoke timelessness, but rather than directly reproducing the imagery, he developed his own language based on these ancient works. Rock art was a rich source of inspiration for Muru’s paintings during this period, among them two large murals commissioned by the Wellington Harbour Board in 1965.

Born in Te Hapua in the Far North, Muru is of Ngāti Kuri and Te Aupōuri descent. He was among the first Maori artists to adapt the materials and approaches of Western modernism in his art practice. Muru is self-taught and once said he believes all artists are: ‘I think every serious painter is mainly self-taught. Of course, this means going through several influences. I have aped Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Picasso for long periods - now I hope to be painting like Muru.’(1)

Experimenting with a variety of styles and genres, including portraits, still lifes and landscapes, Muru’s early works received critical acclaim. '"The best thing that has happened to art in Auckland this year," is how a newspaper critic described the emergence of the young Maori painter Selwyn Muru,'(2) reported Te Ao Hou magazine of Muru's 1963 exhibition at the Auckland Society of Arts. Muru has worked full time as an artist since 1962.

Megan Tamati-Quennell

This essay originally appeared in Art at Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2009).

1. Selwyn Muru, quoted in Pauline Clayton, ‘Hopes to paint like Muru’, New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, 2 August 1965, p. 24.

2. Rosemary Vincent, ‘Selwyn Muru’s paintings win wide acclaim’, Te Ao Hou, no. 46, March 1964, p. 25.