John Walsh has established a significant career as a painter and curator over the past five decades. His work is shown in leading dealer galleries and is held at Te Papa -- where he was Curator of Contemporary Maori Art. But one of his paintings looms large, both literally and figuratively.
John painted Portrait of Ūawa Tolaga Bay, an epic 20-metre long mural as a 27 year-old in 1980. The work was intended for Hauiti marae in his hometown of Tolaga Bay, and it's literally a community painting, full of the faces of people he knew, surrounded by spiritual figures. But it never hung at the marae. It was too strange, too adventurous, and its rejection became a national news story. The painting went into storage, and stayed there for 38 years.
That long exile ended recently. 'ortrait of Ūawa Tolaga Bay is the centrepiece of an exhibition of John's portrait paintings at the National Portrait Gallery in Wellington.
He's this week's Bookmarks guest
Portrait of Ūawa Tolaga Bay Photo: RNZ/ Te Aniwa Hurihanganui
