JEWELLERY, ANTIQUE & ART AUCTION Tuesday, 25 February 2020 - 10:00 AM start

Robin White (b.1946)

Lot Details

‘Beginner's Guide to Gilbertese’, set of five woodblock prints plus cover sheet print, each titled, signed and dated '83 and match numbered 2/20. 170 x 210mm each. Titles: ‘I am doing the washing’, ‘The canoe is in the baraka’, ‘Michael is sleeping on the bed’, ‘The name of this girl is Florence’ and ‘The maneaba’. Provenance: The artist's collection to Guy Ngan, sold at Cordy's 21/8/2006. Note: Robin White studied at Elam School of Fine Arts in the 1960's with Colin McCahon as one of her teachers. She has cited McCahon as an 'important influence on her development and commitment as an artist'. In 1969 she moved to Bottle Creek, Paramata, teaching art at Mana College where she learned the skills of screen printing (not taught at Elam in the 1960's). Here White further developed her art, anchoring her strong refined regionalist landscape style, incorporating rural towns and people. Being of the Baha'i faith, White moved to Kiribati in 1982 with her family to provide voluntary support to the growing Baha'i community, she lived there for 17 years. Her life was different, the atoll confining, she incorporated her everyday life into her art. This set of woodblocks made shortly after her arrival are infused with her hard-edged developed style. White has been living back in New Zealand since 1999. See https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/article/robin-white-s-beginner-s-guide-to-gilbertese