Abstract:
Biography is at the crux of art history. It covers not only the makers, but also the audiences, the patrons as well as the identities of those who are depicted in various ways in art. We recall the Ngapuhi tribal saying: He aha te mea nui, he tangata, he tangata, he tangata – what is the most important thing? It is people, it is people, it is people. But what does this actually mean, and how is it articulated today? This essay seeks to explore some of the articulations of biography through Maori art, and consider them in the context of a new project focused on two important master carvers, and brothers, in the 20th century – Pine and Hone Taiapa. As I began thinking about this article, I was struck by a comment by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn “If there is to be a significant debate about the intellectual and political concerns of Indian America in the twenty-first century, don’t expect it to come from biographers.” Cook-Lynn 90) If this was an assessment of the state of indigenous biographies in the US, I wondered whether it would be the same here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Given that both countries have suffered the processes of colonization, and in turn witnessed the rise of the critical indigenous academic particularly in the past 20 years, surely there would not be the same sorry set of affairs here. And further, that in the field of Art History, even more strides had surely be made. In this article I outline some of the unique ways in which Art History discusses biography, based not only on the person, but also thinking about an object having its own biography, and different ways in which Maori artists articulate biography through various modes of representation. In the final section I consider how this might apply to a new project focused on brother carvers Pine and Hone Taiapa.
