University of Auckland Distinguished Alumni Award (2012)
Arts Foundation Laureate Award (2017)
Dame Robin Adair WhiteDNZM (born 12 July 1946) is a New Zealand painter and printmaker, recognised as a key figure in the regionalist movement of 20th-centuryNew Zealand art.[1][2]
Born inTe Puke on 12 July 1946,[3] White grew up inEpsom, a suburb ofAuckland, the youngest of seven children.[4] Her father, Albert Tikitu White, was a builder andWorld War I veteran ofNgāti Awa descent.[4][5]
White completed a Diploma of Fine Arts atElam School of Fine Arts in 1967.[2] Along with her contemporariesRichard Killeen andIan Scott, White was taught byColin McCahon at Elam and has cited him as an important influence on her development and commitment as an artist.[6]
After art school, White moved to Bottle Creek,Paremata, in 1969, and taught art atMana College.[4] Here White taught herself to screenprint, motivated by a desire to make her art more accessible and affordable. She has frequently reproduced her oil paintings as prints, such asMangaweka (1973) in the collection of theMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.[6] While at Bottle Creek, White befriended local writers includingSam Hunt,Fleur Adcock,Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, and historianMichael King.[4]
Art historianJill Trevelyan notes that it was while living at Bottle Creek that White developed her characteristic style, as she 'began to paint the local landscape using crisp, rhythmic outlines, strong light, and flat blocks of colours'.[7] White became well known for these works, which often depicted scenes of small-town life, such as flat-bed trucks and fish and chip shops.[8]
White is a member of theBaháʼí Faith, as were her parents.[9][10] In 1972 White moved to Portobello, nearDunedin, where she met her husband, also a member of the religion.[4] Here she worked full-time as an artist, while also raising their children.[10]
In 1982 White and her family moved to theRepublic of Kiribati, living on the island ofTarawa and working with the Baháʼí community.[2] Here she continued to make art, working almost entirely in woodcut prints as materials for this method were the most readily available.[6]
White returned to New Zealand in 1999 and is now based inMasterton, where she continues to work with weavers and artists from around the Pacific.[11] In 2011 White was one of nine New Zealand and Australian artists selected to take part in the 'Kermadecs' research trip and exhibition project, organised by thePew Research Center.[12] White's collaborative exhibition of monumental ngatu (painted tapa) works, made withTongan artist Ruha Fifita and a group of Tongan women, showed atPataka Art + Museum in 2014.[13]
In 2009, her work with Leba Toki and Bale Jione was featured in the sixth Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.[15]
In 2021, White was one of the 16 artists represented in an exhibition at theMori Art Museum, Tokyo: "Another Energy—Power To Continue Challenging; 16 Women Artists from around the World". A major criterion for selection was that the artist had to have been working professionally for at least 50 years. The exhibition ran from 22 April to 26 September 2021.
White was one of four contemporary artists invited to participate in the 2021 Art Gallery of New South Wales exhibitionMatisse Alive, works made in response toHenri Matisse's visit to the Pacific in 1930. She contributed theVAIOLA project.[16]
In 2022, theMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa featured an exhibition titled, Robin White: Te Whanaketanga Robin White: Something Is Happening Here, with more than 50 works from across White’s 50-year career that form what the artist describes as a ‘family reunion’, bringing together works from 22 galleries and living rooms across the country.[17] It ran at Te Papa from 4 June to 18 September 2022, and then went on toAuckland Art Gallery.
Mangaweka, 1973. Oil on canvas, 1016 × 1016 mm. First exhibited at Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland, August 1973 $475.00. Purchased byTe Papa in 1994.[18] Original collection ofAlister Taylor.[19]
Fish and chips, Maketu, 1975. Oil on canvas, 609 × 914 mm. Collection ofAuckland Art Gallery.[8]
2022The Perfect Silence of the Hour exhibition of works on tapa with Ebonie Fifita, at Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland.
2022Robin White: Something Is Happening Here, Te Papa Tongarewa[17]
The retrospective exhibition Robin White: Something Is Happening Here ran from November 2022 through January 2023 at Auckland City Art Gallery - Toi O Tamaki, and opened at Dunedin Public Art Gallery on 10 March 2023.[25][26]
Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1981).Robin White – New Zealand Painter. Martinborough, New Zealand: Alister Taylor. p. 102.ISBN9781877385483.OCLC973603346.
Ian Wedde, 'Welcome to the South Pacific: Robin White, Richard Killeen and From Scratch', inHow to be nowhere: Essays and texts 1971–1994, Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1995.ISBN086473249X
Jill Trevelyan, 'The path followed',Art New Zealand, no. 146, Winter 2013, pp. 62–66[30]
^Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1981).Robin White – New Zealand Painter. Martinborough, New Zealand: Alister Taylor. p. 102.ISBN9781877385483.OCLC973603346.
