JEWELLERY, DECORATIVE & FINE ARTS AUCTION Tuesday, 13 February 2024 - 10:00 AM start
Frank Davis (1934-1983) Te Kooti Inspires His Warriors,
Lot Details
oil on board, named on reverse. 1370 x 910mm. Detailed on reverse 'Roger Smith Collection. Note: Davis graduated from Elam in 1955. In 1963 began a series of bush paintings, followed by his first series based on the New Zealand Wars. In the late 1960's it is noted that Davis completed two further series dealing with the life of Te Kooti Rikirangi and an extended series on what he called `cultural metamorphosis'. During the 1960s Frank Davis was writing the history of contemporary Māori art as part of the school curriculum. (His widow Waana Davis was a chairperson of the Māori Arts organisation ‘Toi Māori Aotearoa’.) He supported and wrote stories about upcoming Māori artists who were then unknown, including Darcy Nicholas, Ross Hemera, Robert Jahnke, Albert McCarthy and John Walsh, at a time when the Māori art movement was ignored by the art gallery establishment.
