Maori Art and Design

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Maori Art and Design: Weaving, Painting, Carving and Architecture

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Julie Paama-Pengelly 2010 New Holland Publishers

The Blurb:

For early Maori, art was inseparable from daily life, whether it was the pattern on a sculpted spade handle or the magnificently carved prow of a war canoe. Julie Paama-Pengelly traces the evolution of art and design in historic Maori culture and brings that art to life, focusing on four major disciplines: Weaving and fibre arts: includes tukutuku, kitemaking, basketry, netting and clothing; Painting and pigmentation: includes rock drawing and painting wooden objects; Sculpture and carving: includes stone, bone, wood carving and patterning; Architecture and structural arts: includes villages, storage and meeting houses, burial structures and bone containers. Chapters review the various art forms within each discipline and identify the source elements. Illustrated tables outline development periods, design conventions, and common figurative elements and motifs that distinguish Maori art and design. This book will be of great interest to readers who are new to the subject as well as to students and experts

About the Author

Julie Paama-Pengelly is of Ngai Te Rangi (Bay of Plenty) descent and is an artist, writer and educator of contemporary Maori arts. She holds a Masters of Development Studies, a Masters (Honours) in Maori Visual Arts, and is writing her PhD in Fine Arts through Massey University. Julie lives with her family in Ohope.

Publisher: New Holland Publishers (NZ) Ltd ISBN 186966244X


Mini Review

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This is a profusely illustrated book which covers the wide span of Maori arts and crafts. It is salutary for an archaeologist to consider this span and think on how rarely we can see even a small fraction of what is shown here in our excavated material. This book is a fine introduction to the field, there has been nothing as comprehensive since Hamilton's Maori Art[1]. Commendably the author has attempted bringing in the perspective from archaeology but it is not always up to date. Some wider peer reviewing could surely have avoided this. There is a much fuller book seeking to escape from this one. In a few places the text seems abbreviated to the point of incomprehensibility, and some obvious opportunities to discuss contact period changes seem to be foregone. Let us hope perhaps that the larger book is still in prospect.

GL

References

  1. A Hamilton, A. 1896 The art workmanship of the Maori race in New Zealand. Fergusson & Mitchell Dunedin.