A simple and elegant book of around 100 pages on the line drawings and paintings of women which Hotere has produced from 1959 through to the late 1990s. The works fall into three groups, the largest of which is from the Woman series, sensual, beautiful images, mostly nudes, making superb use of line. Carnival is a small group of works on paper depicting the annual carnival in Avignon and Nice and conveying, in line and rich colour, a sense of the grotesque and the frenetic; the Song Cycle works were originally drawn for a stage performance in 1975 and suggest movement and sound. This book will accompany an exhibition to be shown at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in August 2005 which may well subsequently tour to other cities. It will include a 5000-word essay and approximately 120 reproductions, some in colour; there will also be a catalogue of works, a list of works, bibliography and list of illustrations. Baker presents an aspect of this popular artist?s work that is little known and which will have great appeal: the drawings are captivating and also richly varied; they contrast vividly with the large abstract works for which Hotere is better known.

Author Biography

Kriselle Baker is an art historian who recently completed a highly regarded thesis on the artist Ralph Hotere: "Ralph Hotere: the Vence paintings: Sangro, Polaris, Algerie". She was born in 1960 in Te Awamutu, New Zealand, and completed a BA in Russian and Japanese at The University of Auckland. She spent the next decade living in Tokyo and Sydney before returning to Auckland to complete her MA in Art History at Elam, University of Auckland. She is currently writing her PhD thesis, also on the work of Ralph Hotere, focusing on the use of text in his art. She is also compiling a digital catalogue raisonne of Hotere's works. Ralph Hotere, of Maori heritage, is one of New Zealand's foremost contemporary artists. Although his work is predominantly abstract it invariably carries a powerful political statement in the New Zealand context.