17 Facts About Ralph Hotere

Ralph Hotere was born in Mitimiti, Northland and is widely regarded as one of New Zealand's most important artists.

Ralph Hotere was born in Mitimiti, close to the Hokianga Harbour in the Northland Region, one of 15 children.

When Ralph Hotere was 9, his older brother Jack enlisted in the army.

Ralph Hotere received his secondary education at Hato Petera College, Auckland, where he studied from 1946 to 1949.

In 1961 Ralph Hotere gained a New Zealand Art Societies Fellowship and travelled to England where he studied at the Central School of Art and Design in London.

Ralph Hotere's travels took him, among other places, to the war cemetery in Italy where his brother was buried.

Ralph Hotere returned to New Zealand and exhibited in Dunedin in 1965, and returned to the city in 1969 when he became the University of Otago's Frances Hodgkins Fellow.

Ralph Hotere worked with poets such as Hone Tuwhare and Bill Manhire to produce several strong paintings, and produced other works specifically for the New Zealand literary journal Landfall.

Ralph Hotere worked in collaboration with other prominent artists, notably Bill Culbert.

Ralph Hotere moved to Carey's Bay in Port Chalmers in 1969, spending most of his life in the town.

From 1968, Ralph Hotere began the series of works with which he is perhaps best known, the Black Paintings.

Ralph Hotere's Polaris series was a response to the 1984 threat of nuclear warheads due to the Polaris programme.

In 1992, Ralph Hotere transformed the RKS Gallery in Wellington with an exhibition utilising kilometres of number 8 wire.

Ralph Hotere's work was slowed by a stroke in 2001, but he continued to create and exhibit regularly until his death in February 2013.

Ralph Hotere married three times, with two of his wives being artists.

Ralph Hotere later married Mary McFarlane, another notable artist, in February 2002.

Ralph Hotere died on 24 February 2013, aged 81 and was survived by his daughter Andrea, three mokopuna and his third wife Mary.