Her work was admired by Ralph Hotere. She was celebrated in verse by Hone Tuwhare and Cilla McQueen. Her teaching shaped thousands of art students, and she was honoured with awards, exhibitions, and interviews. Her pastel images of Fiordland, in shades of silver, olive and blue, have become iconic. And yet one could argue that Marilynn Webb’s achievements remain undervalued in Aotearoa, especially outside Otago and Southland.
“Being Māori, a woman, living ‘regionally’, and an artist who works on paper are all factors that result in her artwork being readily dismissed by many public institutions,” says artist Bridget Reweti. “But despite this, her work is loved and continually receives the credit it deserves from artists.”
Reweti, Lauren Gutsell and Lucy Hammonds are co-curators of Folded in the Hills, a major retrospective of Webb’s art from the late 1960s to the mid 2000s that currently fills the Dunedin Public Art Gallery’s vast first floor. The exhibition, which travels to Christchurch in June, and the handsome accompanying catalogue are an attempt to shift public thinking about Webb’s remarkable body of work.
The seeds of
