Ralph Hōtere

One of eleven children, Hone Papita Raukura (Ralph) Hōtere (Te Aupōuri and Te Rarawa)) was born in Northland in 1931.

After Teacher’s College, he moved to Dunedin in 1952 to specialise in art. After a spell in the Bay of Islands as an arts advisor for the Education Department, Hotere was awarded a New Zealand Art Societies Fellowship to study in London at the Central School of Art.

Returning to New Zealand in 1965, he began to focus exclusively on his artistic career. Before being awarded the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship and moving to Dunedin permanently in 1969, Hōtere had two important solo exhibitions in Auckland: Sangro Paintings and Human Rights (1965) and Black Paintings (1968).

In 1979, he used his friend Hone Tuwhare's well-known poem Rain to produce Three Banners with Poem, for the Hocken Library. His work is represented in every major public and private collection in New Zealand and in art museums throughout the world.

Ralph Hōtere died on 24 February 2013.