This selection of modernist works comes from Waikato Museum’s permanent collections. From the many [isms] related to modernism, the exhibition looks at examples of works that are directly influenced by European modernism and a glimpse at the influence of indigenous Maori and Oceanic art. Longstanding Maori and Polynesian artistic traditions became sources of inspiration and discomfort within our art histories. This turbulence marks the uneasy relationship that exists between Maori and Oceanic abstraction and the appropriation and research of many of our early New Zealand European abstractionists undertook while trying to find a ‘regional’ modernism.
Text extracted from the Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato website.