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From her regionalist-style painting in the 70s to her more recent collaboratively-made giant tapa, Dame Robin White is widely recognised as a key figure in contemporary New Zealand art, with a career stretching back more than 50 years. As a painter and printmaker, Dame Robin’s works are characterised by the use of bold tones, rhythmic outlines, symbols and pattern-making to depict scenes of small-town New Zealand and life in the Pacific.
A new book from Te Papa Press, Robin White: Something is Happening Here, is the first publication to be devoted to Dame Robin’s art in 40 years.
The book’s release is being followed by a retrospective exhibition of more than 70 works from across her career, opening at Te Papa in June and then at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in late October.
Robin (3rd from right, front row) at Raglan District High School in the 60s, her rock 'n' roll years (PHOTO: Supplied)
Robin White with son Michael at Portobello studio,1973 (PHOTO: Supplied)
Robin’s painting of her son, Michael at Home (1978). (PHOTO: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa)
Robin White, Fish and Chips, Maketu (1975). (PHOTO: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki)
Robin in front of the real Maketu Fish and Chips shop in 2015 (PHOTO: Supplied)
Robin at home at Bikenibeu in June, 1982 (PHOTO: Claudia Pond Eyley)
Robin White, Beginner’s Guide to Gilbertese: 1. Michael is sleeping on the bed (1983). (PHOTO: Robin White)
Robin shops for fish in the village of Bikenibeu on South Tarawa Kiribati (PHOTO: Supplied)
Robin White and Ebonie Fifita during Laka residency in early 2022 (PHOTO: David Chapman)
Robin White and Ebonie Fifita, Soon, the tide will turn (2021). Commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales for Matisse Alive exhibition. (PHOTO: Supplied)
