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Selwyn Muru

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Selwyn Muru
Muru in 1966
Born
Selwyn Frederick Muru

(1937-08-06)6 August 1937
Te Hāpua, New Zealand
Died24 January 2024(2024-01-24) (aged 86)
Auckland, New Zealand
Known for
Notable workWaharoa (1990)

Selwyn Frederick Muru (6 September 1937 – 24 January 2024), also known as Herewini Murupaenga, was a New Zealand artist. Of Māori descent (Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Kurī),[1] his life's work included painting, sculpture, journalism, broadcasting, directing, acting, set design, theatre, poetry, and whaikōrero.[2] Muru was awarded the Te Tohu Aroha mō Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu | Exemplary/Supreme Award in 1990 at the Creative New Zealand Te Waka Awards.[3]

Biography

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Muru was born in Te Hāpua, Northland in 1937. He was Māori and affiliated with the iwi, Te Aupōuri and Ngāti Kurī.[1][4] He was a self-taught artist, although he did receive some instruction from Kāterina Mataira while at Northland College.[4] He went on to attend Ardmore Teachers' College specialising in arts and crafts.[2][4] He taught at Matakana District High School and Huiarau Primary in Ruatāhuna. He became a part-time art tutor at Mount Eden Prison in 1962.[5]

After a solo exhibition and a feature article in Te Ao Hou, by 1964 Muru had become established as an artist.[4] In 1964, he worked on the John O’Shea (Pacific Films) feature film Runaway, where he was building sets and also had a small acting role.[5] He began his broadcasting career in 1966.[4]

An exhibition Muru curated in 1969, The Work of Maori Artists, was the first group show of contemporary Māori art at the National Art Gallery of New Zealand (now Te Papa).[4] Muru has said: "Māori art has always been contemporary."[6]

Muru, poet Hone Tuwhare and artist Para Matchitt founded the Māori Writers and Artists’ Association (Nga Puna Waihanga) in 1973.[2] In 1990, Muru was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.[7]

Muru died in the Auckland suburb of Point Chevalier on 24 January 2024, at the age of 86.[8][9][10]

Broadcasting

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In 1967, Muru was appointed assistant to the Head of Programmes, New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation.[5] In this role, he created Te Puna Wai Kōrero, 'a weekly current affairs programme in English on northern Māori issues'.[5] He began presenting in the early 1970s on Te Reo o Te Pipiwharauroa, weekly current affairs in the Māori language (replacing Ted Nia).[5]

The first Māori programme to air on prime-time television was Below Koha in 1982. Muru along with Aroaro Hond, Robert Puwhare, Mona Papali'i and Ernie Leonard were involved.[11]

Artwork

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A wooden carved entrance arch in the middle of the photo. The arch is triangular with two posts and is quite large. The carvings are a mixture of shapes and some stick out of the top.
Waharoa (1990), a symbolic entrance to Aotea Square in Auckland, by Selwyn Muru

A significant public sculpture by Muru is Waharoa (1990), an entrance gate to Aotea Square in Auckland. Represented are carvings of Tama-nui-te-rā (god of the sun), Tangaroa (god of the sea), Tāne-mahuta (god of the forest), Tāwhiri-mātea (god of the elements) and Whetū me te Marama (the crescent moon and stars).[12]

Muru's work with recycled timber in the 1980s has been described as a 'leitmotif' or recurrent theme amongst several Māori artists including Ralph Hotere, Para Matchitt and Bruce Stewart by art critic Rangihiroa Panaho. Panaho calls this a re-appropriation.[13]

Curator Nigel Borell displayed two of Muru's artworks in the 2022 survey of contemporary Māori art Toi Tū Toi Ora at Auckland Art Gallery – Resurrections of Te Whiti over Taranaki (1975–77) and Te Whiti and Tohu over Taranaki (1975–77), paintings that feature the mountain Taranaki and the Māori leaders Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi.[4]

The New Zealand Portrait Gallery held a retrospective exhibition entitled Selwyn Muru: A Life's Work for three months starting in November 2022.[14][15]

Collections that hold his work include Te Papa and Auckland Art Gallery.[6]

Exhibitions

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Selected exhibitions:

References

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  1. 1 2 "Selwyn Muru". Auckland Art Gallery. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 "Selwyn Frederick Muru (Herewini Murupaenga)". Kōmako - A bibliography of writing by Māori in English. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  3. ↑ "Te Waka Toi Awards". Creative NZ Toi Aotearoa. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Toi tū, toi ora : contemporary Māori art. Nigel Borell, Moana Jackson, Taarati Taiaroa, Auckland Art Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand. 2022. ISBN 978-0-14-377673-4. OCLC 1296712119.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Selwyn Muru with Mack Taylor". ngataonga.org.nz. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  6. 1 2 Nepia, Moana (19 November 2020). "Selwyn Muru - A major retrospective". Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  7. ↑ Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1994). Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand. Auckland: New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa. p. 278. ISBN 0-908578-34-2.
  8. ↑ "Māori artist and broadcaster Selwyn Muru dies, aged 86". RNZ. 24 January 2024. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
  9. ↑ "Selywn Muru a ground breaker for Māori". Waatea News. 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  10. ↑ "Selwyn Muru obituary". The New Zealand Herald. 10 February 2024. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
  11. ↑ Harris, Aroha (2018). Te Ao Hurihuri : the changing world 1920-2014. Melissa Matutina Williams. Wellington. ISBN 978-1-988533-45-2. OCLC 1019850064.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ↑ "Waharoa". Auckland Live. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  13. ↑ .Panoho, Rangihiroa (2015). Māori Art - History, Architecture, Landscape and Theory. Bateman. ISBN 978-1-86953-867-5. OCLC 1330247329.
  14. ↑ Perry, James (8 December 2022). "Portrait exhibition honours life of Selwyn Muru". Te Ao Māori News. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  15. ↑ "Selwyn Muru: A Life's Work". New Zealand Portrait Gallery. 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Council for Maori and South Pacific Arts (N.Z.) (1992). Te Waka toi : contemporary Maori art from New Zealand : biographies of contemporary Maori artists whose work toured the United States of America from 1992 to 1993. Wellington: Te Waka Toi.
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