Gordon Frederick Walters was a Wellington-born artist and graphic designer who is significant to New Zealand culture due to his representation of New Zealand in his Modern Abstract artworks.
14 Facts About Gordon Walters
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Gordon Walters took up a job in the Ministry of Supply doing illustrations.
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Gordon Walters traveled to Australia in 1946 and then visited photographer and painter Theo Schoon in South Canterbury, who was photographing Maori rock art at Opihi River.
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In 1950 Gordon Walters moved to Europe where he became influenced by Piet Mondrian, Victor Vasarely and Auguste Herbin.
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On his return to New Zealand in 1953, Gordon Walters began to fuse abstract modernism with traditional Maori art.
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Gordon Walters's design straightened the stem of the koru in a way not seen in customary Maori contexts.
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In 1956 Gordon Walters made the initial studies for the painting that would become his first koru painting, Te Whiti.
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For Te Whiti Gordon Walters used hardboard and a co polymer of PVA.
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Te Whiti was not included in the New Vision Gallery exhibition Gordon Walters: Painting 1965 and Walters submitted it instead to the Hays Ltd Art Competition as Painting 1965.
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In 2023 the Gordon Walters Estate published an edition of 100 screen prints of Te Whiti embossed with the Estate's blind stamp.
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Gordon Walters' best known work, Maheno, was painted in 1981 and is part of Gordon Walters ongoing koru series.
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Gordon Walters became a full-time artist in 1966 and in 1971 was awarded a QEII Fellowship.
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Gordon Walters married Margaret Orbell, a scholar of Maori literature, in 1963.
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Gordon Walters died in Christchurch on 5 November 1995, aged 76.