The protagonist of Marian Maguire’s new print series, Titokowaru’s Dilemma, is an impressive figure who embodies the complexities and contradictions of nineteenth-century New Zealand history. T?tokowaru was a trained M?ori tohunga but a Christian convert; an advocate of peace but an outstanding military strategist; a powerful and charismatic leader but one who lost the support of his followers. Rather than simply confusing us, these diverse characteristics offer a more nuanced understanding of T?tokowaru than we might have of more conventional early New Zealanders. And it was this that made him an absorbing subject for Maguire, whose prints exploring colonial history challenge simplistic readings of the past.
Living in the Taranaki district, T?tokowaru was involved in battles against the British in the early 1860s, but then led a number of important initiatives promoting peace with settlers. When continuing land confiscations pushed M?ori into war to avoid starvation, he first resorted to plunder without bloodshed then, in a situation of escalating conflict, deployed an effective combination of fear-provoking propaganda, clever field-engineering and guerrilla tactics to overcome British troops far superior in number to his own. The unexpected dissolution of T?tokowaru’s army in 1869 after a series of victories, reputedly because he undermined his mana by sleeping with the wife of an ally, did not diminish his reputation among settlers as a formidable opponent, and an uneasy peace was maintained. Further land deprivations led to a campaign of passive resistance in which T?tokowaru took part alongside Te Whiti and Tohu. Resistance was finally quashed in a massive show of force by the British at Parihaka in 1881, which decimated M?ori power in the area and saw T?tokowaru imprisoned a number of times before his death in 1888.
In these prints, Maguire continues to develop her distinctive imagery drawn from ancient and colonial sources. The bold silhouettes of Greek vase paintings are particularly evident in her black-and-white etchings, such as those depicting amorous adventures involving Greek gods, M?ori maidens, satyrs and settlers, in a series entitled Colonial Encounters. In the large colour lithographs ofTitokowaru’s Dilemma, figures of similar style and clarity are set into New Zealand landscapes based on colonial paintings and photographs. In Maguire’s intriguing cultural crossovers, we find such unexpected meetings as Socrates in discussion with T?tokowaru, Persephone keeping company with Hine-nui-te-p? in the underworld, and Zeus stalking Papa in a Whangarei landscape. Figures are transposed into unexpected historical settings, with Gustavus von Tempsky dying on the battlefields of Troy, Venus de Milo taken captive in a M?ori p?, and the Christchurch statue of Captain Cook entangled in rata roots in the Taranaki bush. Such intriguing visual inventions continually surprise and delight us, and tease our imaginations with human connections across time.
Presenting T?tokowaru more as a thinking man than a fighter, Maguire frames his story in terms of the kind of questions that Socrates asked – we discover him debating ‘what is virtue?’ with Socrates, or discussing ‘what is peace?’ with his compatriot Te Whiti. The fact that, though pictured against Mount Taranaki, these paired figures mimic the pose of Achilles and Ajax from a famous black-figure vase by the Greek potter and painter Exekias, forges links between New Zealand and ancient Greece, showing that these debates have a timeless significance.
In A Taranaki Dialogue, the enquiry continues in a series of small etchings of the Taranaki landscape, finally focusing on two questions that seem to underpin Maguire’s project as a whole: it is she, as much as Socrates or T?tokowaru, who asks us, ‘what is myth?’ and ‘what is history?’. Elizabeth Rankin 2011
Publication
105 page full colour catalogue with essays and contributions from:
Elizabeth Rankin – Professor of Art History, University of Auckland.
James Belich – Professor of History, Stout Research Centre, Victoria University, Wellington.
Dame Anne Salmond – Distinguished Professor, Maori Studies and Anthropology, University of Auckland.
Keri Hulme – Author, poet, Booker Prize winner and whitebaiter, Okarito.
Dr Giovanni Tiso – Wellington Based Writer, editor, tutor and translator.
Marian Maguire – see below.
Marian Maguire
Born in Christchurch in 1962, Marian Maguire graduated from the Ilam School of Art, University of Canterbury, in 1984, having majored in printmaking. During 1986 she studied at the Tamarind Institute of Lithography, Albuquerque, USA, and alongside making her own work she has pursued a career as a collaborative master printer, in which capacity she has printed the work of some of New Zealand’s leading artists. Maguire set up Limeworks print studio with Stephen Gleeson in 1987 and in 1996 established PaperGraphica print studio and gallery. From 1993 to 1996 she taught printmaking part-time at Ilam School of Art, University of Canterbury. Currently Maguire works almost full-time on her own work.
She was awarded an Artist in Residence at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art in 1991 and received an Award for Excellence from the Canterbury Community Trust in 1998. In 2010 she was Artist in Residence at Tylee Cottage, Whanganui.
Marian Maguire has exhibited throughout New Zealand. Her early work was mainly figurative and gestural but in the early nineties she shifted her subject to emblematic images of gates, archways and bridges. Her exhibitions include Library Travelling (McDougall Art Annex, Christchurch, 1996), in which she incorporated imagery from a wide range of historical sources with gates, archways, bridges, architectural plans and imaginary travelling, linking sixty-six small etchings and three large composite prints in a loose narrative. Perfect Planning (Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch 1996; Lesley Kriesler Gallery, New Plymouth, 1997) and Regarding the Renaissance (Centre of Contemporary Art, 1997) followed and in these series of paintings she explores the relationship between the architects of the Italian Renaissance and the art, architecture and mathematics of ancient Greece.
Through this enquiry into Greek art she became interested in black-figure vase painting and produced two exhibitions, Vases & Narratives (Centre of Contemporary Art, 1999) and Mythical Landscapes (Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore, 2000, Centre of Contemporary Art, 2000). In Mythical Landscapes she began to set Greek heroes in the New Zealand landscape. In Southern Myths (PaperGraphica, Christchurch, 2002; Auckland Art Gallery, 2005) she extends this idea into a series of nine etchings threaded on an adapted plotline from the Iliad. Forest, her next exhibition (PaperGraphica, 2003), was an installation of abstracted, geometric trees, inspired by Greek vase painting and painted on loose canvas.
She returned to a narrative theme in The Odyssey of Captain Cook (Otago Museum, Dunedin, 2005; PaperGraphica, 2005; Millennium Art Gallery, Blenheim, 2006; Lopdell House, Titirangi, 2006) and in this series of lithographs and etchings the Endeavour is the vehicle by which the ancient Greeks collide with resident Ma¯????ori. While working on her next narrative print series, The Labours of Herakles, Maguire also made The Paper Garden, in which she combines patterning from Greek vase painting with her own observation of nature (PaperGraphica, 2007), and she contributed to the exhibition of Deities and Mortals, in which eight artists were asked to respond to the items from the Logie Collection of classical artefacts (Christchurch Art Gallery, 2007).
The Labours of Herakles series of lithographs and etchings, in which she casts the Greek hero as a New Zealand pioneer, was first realeased at PaperGraphica in 2008. It has since been on a twenty venue tour throughout New Zealand which finishes October 2012; the tour is organized by Exhibition Services. Half of the Herakles series was also shown at Impact 7: International Multi-disciplinary Printmaking Conference (Monash University, Melbourne, Australia 2011).
Marian Maguire is represented in public collections including: Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa; Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tamaki; Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna o Waiwhetu; National Gallery of Australia; The Waikato Museum, Te Whare Taonga o Waikato; University of Canterbury, Massey University, The Hocken Collection, University of Otago; New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Central Queensland University, Australia; Cambridge University, United Kingdom; The Birthplace of Captain Cook Museum, Middlesborough, United Kingdom.
1979 Designed and completed a mural, Christchurch Art Centre.
1980-84 BFA, University of Canterbury.
1986 Professional Printer Training Programme, Tamarind Institute of Lithography, Albuquerque, USA.
1987-94 Operated Limeworks Lithography Studio in partnership with Stephen Gleeson.
1987-89 Taught drawing part-time at Christchurch Polytechnic.
1991 External assessor, printmaking, Otago School of Art.
1991-2001 Council member, CSA / COCA. Chairperson 1996.
1993-96 Taught printmakinG at Ilam Art School, University of Canterbury. 1997 Selector for Telecom Art Awards, Christchurch.
1998 External Assessor, Printmaking Dept., Elam, Auckland University.
2001 Sole Judge of Ashburton Art Society Awards (Art).
2001 Attended ‘In the Region’ Printmaking Symposium at the National Gallery of Australia as a Guest Speaker.
2003 Panel Judge, Cranleigh Barton Drawing Award, an award hosted by the Christchuch Art Gallery.
2007 Sole Judge, Margaret Stoddart Art Award, COCA, Christchurch.
1996-2009 Master printer at PaperGraphica printmaking studio: a workshop specialising in the production of high quality lithographs, woodcuts and etchings in limited editions.
2001-present Gallery operator / curator of PaperGraphica gallery (alongside Nigel Buxton)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011 Titokowaru’s Dilemma, Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui
2011 Titokowaru’s Dilemma, PaperGraphica, Christchurch
2011 Sole exhibitor at Impact 7, International Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking Conference, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
2009 Botanical Studies from an Exploratory Voyage, drawings, PaperGraphica, Christchurch
2008 – 2012 The Labours of Herakles tour to twenty galleries in NZ
Venues: Millennium Gallery, Blenheim; Puke Ariki, New Plymouth; Aratoi,
Masterton; Hastings Art Gallery; Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui; Adam Art
Gallery, Wellington; Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford; Lopdell House, Titirangi; Hocken Library, Dunedin; Forrester Gallery, Oamaru; Southland Museum, Invercargill; Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore; Ashburton Art Gallery; Aigantighe Gallery, Timaru; Tairawhiti Museum, Gisborne; Waikato Museum, Hamilton; Te Manawa, Palmerston North; Tauranga Art Gallery, Waikato Museum.
2008 The Labours of Herakles, PaperGraphica, Christchurch
2008 The Odyssey of Captain Cook, Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, Marton, Middlesborough, United Kingdom.
2007 The Paper Garden, PaperGraphica, Christchurch
2006 The Odyssey of Captain Cook, Lopdell House Gallery, Titirangi
2006 The Odyssey of Captain Cook, Millennium Art Gallery, Blenheim
2005 Flow Diagrams paintings, Whitespace, Auckland
2005 The Odyssey of Captain Cook, Otago Museum
2005 The Odyssey of Captain Cook, PaperGraphica, Christchurch
2005 Southern Myths, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tamaki
2004 Flow Diagrams, woodcuts, PaperGraphica, Christchurch
2004 FOREST, Lesley Kreisler Gallery, New Plymouth.
2004 Paintings and lithographs, Carrick Winery, Otago.
2003 FOREST, PaperGraphica, Christchurch.
2003 New Paintings, Whitespace, Auckland.
2003 Southern Myths, Ashburton Art Gallery.
2002 Amphora, Port Gallery, Port Chalmers, Dunedin.
2002 New etchings and lithographs, PaperGraphica, Christchurch.
2000 Mythical Landscapes, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch
2000 Mythical Landscapes, Eastern Southland Art Gallery.
1999 Vases & Narratives, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch.
1997 Regarding the Renaissance, COCA, Christchurch.
1997 Perfect Planning, Lesley Kreisler Gallery, New Plymouth.
1996 Perfect Planning, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch.
1996 Library Travelling, McDougall Art Annex, Christchurch.
1995 Gates Archways Bridges, CSA Gallery, Christchurch.
1995 The Lane Gallery, Auckland.
1993 The Lane Gallery, Auckland.
1993 Aero Club Gallery, Port Chalmers, Dunedin.
1992 No. 5 Gallery, Dunedin.
1992 Aero Club Gallery, Port Chalmers, Dunedin.
1992 Canterbury Gallery, Christchurch.
1992 33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington.
1991 33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington.
1990 Canterbury Gallery, Christchurch.
1989 33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington.
1985 Coarse Grain / Fine Cut, Marshall Seifert Gallery, Dunedin.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010 Christmas Exhibition, new prints, PaperGraphica, Christchurch
2010 Walking the Line, drawing exhibition, Bartley+Company Art, Wgtn.
2010 Call Waiting: A Celebration of the NEW Gallery 1995-2011
Auckland Art Gallery, NEW Gallery
2010 Back & Beyond & Here, New Zealand Art for the Young & Curious
Museum of Wellington City and Sea
2009 The Captain, Tauranga Art Gallery, Toi Tauranga
2009 Sanboa International Printmaking Exhibition, Jingdezhen, China.
2009 Picturing History: Goldie to Cotton, Auckland Art Gallery
2009 Stuart Duffin, Kelvin Mann, Marian Maguire, Solander Gallery, Wellington. Includes Maguire’s drawings Botanical Studies from an Exploratory Voyage.
2008 Our Space, The Wall, Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand
Images from The Odyssey of Captain Cook included in an electronic, interactive exhibition, 2008 – 2020.
2008 Pacific Rim International Print Exhibition, Sofa Gallery, Christchurch.
An exhibition convened by the Uni of Canterbury School of Fine Arts.
2008 Keeping Time, Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna o Waiwhetu
2007 ‘Art School 125′ 125 Years of the School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna o Waiwhetu
2007 of Deities and Mortals, 8 artists respond to artifacts from the Logie Collection, Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna o Waiwhetu
2007 Pakeha Now! The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatu, Nelson
2005 Considering Mondrian, PaperGraphica, Millennium Art Gallery;
Blenheim; Eastern Southland Art Gallery, Gore (2006).
2003 WARSHOW, PaperGraphica, Christchurch.
1998 Picturing History, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch.
1992 Prospect Canterbury, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch.
1993 Print and Paper Exhibition, Kurashiki Public Gallery,Kurashiki, Japan. 1993 White Camelias, Suffrage Exhibition, Robert McDougall Art Gallery.
1993 Women’s Art from the North and South Island, The Suter, Nelson
1993 New Zealand Women Printmakers, Exhibition toured by Zonta.
1987 with Sue Cooke and Ralph Hotere, Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
1985 with Sue Cooke and Ralph Hotere, RKS Art, Auckland.
AWARDS
2010 Artist in Residence, Tylee Cottage. An award supported by the Sargeant Gallery, Whanganui, NZ
1998 Arts Excellence Award, The Canterbury Community Trust.
1991 Artist in Residence, Otago Polytechnic. An award funded by the QEII Arts Council.
1984 Seager Prize in drawing, Ilam School of Art.
COLLECTIONS
Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna o Waiwhetu, New Zealand
National Library Collection, New Zealand
Central Queensland University, Australia
Nelson Polytechnic, New Zealand
Christchurch College of Education, New Zealand
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Lincoln University, New Zealand
National Bank, New Zealand
Canterbury Public Library, New Zealand
New Zealand Parliament Buildings
National Gallery of Australia
Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tamaki, New Zealand
Massey University, New Zealand
Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand
The Waikato Museum, Te Whare Taonga o Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Cambridge University, United Kingdom
The Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, Middlesbrough, United Kingdom
Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen, China
Hocken Library Collection, Otago University, Dunedin
Victoria University of Wellington
Dunedin Public Art Gallery
CATALOGUES AND BOOKS
Titokowaru’s Dilemma, by Marian Maguire, with contributions from Elizabeth Rankin, James Belich, Giovanni Tiso, Anne Salmond and Keri Hulme, PaperGraphica 2011.
The Labours of Herakles, by Marian Maguire, with essays by Elizabeth Rankin and Patrick O’Sullivan, PaperGraphica 2008
The Odyssey of Captain Cook by Marian Maguire, essay by Anna Smith, PaperGraphica 2005
The Odyssey adapted, by Marian Maguire, limited edition, hand-bound book, PaperGraphica 2006
The Iliad abbreviated, by Marian Maguire, limited edition book, PaperGraphica 2003
BOOK COVERS
Striding Both Worlds: Witi Ihimaera and New Zealand’s Literary Traditions by Melissa Kennedy.
Rodopi, The Netherlands – New York, 2011. Cover image.
The Snake-Haired Muse: James K. Baxter and Classical Myth by Geoffrey Miles, John Davidson and Paul Millar. Victoria University Press, 2011. Cover image plus 3 plates.
Lost Relatives, poems by Siobahn Harvey, Steele Roberts, 2011. Cover image. Victoria University of Wellington, 2011 Calender. Cover image.
Ithaca Island Bay Leaves, poems by Vana Manasiadis, Seraph Press 2009. Cover image.
Lis Penden’ in International Litigation, by Campbell McLachlan, Martinus Nijhoff 2009. Cover image.
Architecture NZ, no. 6, 2008. Cover illustration.
Publications, review, blogs with reference to Maguire as an artist;
ARTiculate (video 2011) – a documentary project made in response to the 2010/11 earthquakes by Canterbury Arts & Heritage Trust. http://www.articulate.org.nz
Critical Mass: Printmaking Beyond the Edge, by Richard Noyce, A&C Black (London), 2010.
Sanboa International Printmaking Exhibition, catalogue, Jingdezhen, China.
Back & Beyond & Here. Group exhibition catalogue (related to Gregory O’Brien’s Back and Beyond, 2010, Museum of Wellington City and Sea.
Giovanni Tiso, The Labours of Herakles, 2009.
http://bat-bean-beam.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html
Adrienne Rewi Ancient Greece meets Indigenous New Zealand 2009
http://grhomeboy.wordpress.com/2006/07/12/ancient-greece-meets-indigenous-new-zealand/
A new take on our colonial history, article by Adam Gifford. The Herald newspaper, 20.2.10.
The Art of History, article by Jackie Bowring on b.passages.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html
2008 Pacific Rim International Print Exhibition catalogue, University of Canterbury.
Postcards, review by Sally Blundell in Art News, Spring 2008.
Herculean NZ, article by Rosa Shiels in the Christchurch Press 11.6.08.
Back & Beyond, New Zealand Painting for the Young and Curious by Gregory O’Brien, Auckland University Press, 2008.
Pakeha Now! exhibition catalogue, The Bishop Suter Art Gallery, 2007
Time Flowing Backwards, review by Bridie Lonie. The Listener Sept 2005, Vol 200, no.3410
Of Deities or Mortals, exhibition catalogue, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, 2005.
Achilles and Ajax in Aotearoa: Marian Maguire’s Southern Myths, article by Elizabeth Rankin, Art New Zealand 118, 2006.
White Camelias, exhibition catalogue, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, 1993
Publications with reference to Maguire as a collaborative printmaker
Printmaking at PaperGraphica, a collaborative fine print studio in New Zealand, article by Elizabeth Rankin, Grapheion 19, 2006, International review of contemporary prints, book and paper art.
Empty of shadows and making a shadow, lithographs by Ralph Hotere, Essays by Peter Vangioni and Jillian Cassidy, introduction Marian Maguire. Christchurch Art Gallery, 2005.
Islands in the Sun, edited by Roger Butler, Australian National Gallery, 2001.
Crossing the Divide: a painter makes prints, Gretchen Albrecht, edited by James Ross, essay Anne Kirker, Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui, 1999.
Limeworks Studio, article by John Daly-Peoples, Art New Zealand 55, 1990. Lasting Impressions, Lithography as Art, edited by Pat Gilmour, Australian National Gallery 1988.
Contemporary New Zealand Prints, edited by Jill MacIntosh, Allen & Unwin / Port Nicholson Press in association with Wellington City Art Gallery 1989.