“and feather falling”

Posted: Monday Mar 28, 2022

A tribute to Marilynn Webb

This exhibition brings together a group of five hand-painted prints and one water colour by Marilynn Webb, complemented by a large atmospheric work on paper by Brendan Jon Philip and a photograph of the interior of Marilyn Webb’s home, taken by Adrienne Martyn.

Marilynn Lois Webb (1937-2021) was known as much for her own art as for her generous support of younger artists. An acclaimed educator of European and Māori ((Te Roroa/Ngãpuhi) descent, Marilynn Webb was awarded a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa in 2010 by the University of Otago in recognition for her services to art and arts education,–201 and, in 2011, received a Ngā Tohu a Tā Kīngi Ihaka award from Te Waka Toi for her contributions to ngā toi Māori (Māori arts).

The hand-painted prints feature two poems by New Zealand poet Cilla McQueen.  Among her many honours, she received the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry in 1983, 1989, and 1991, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Literature by the University of Otago in 2008, and named New Zealand Poet Laureate in 2009–2011. In a tribute to New Zealand poet Hone Tuwhare, published in 2008, McQueen wrote:

“Personal memories will burn like stars in the hearts of those who hold them.”

Marilynn Webb left behind a more tangible, if equally poignant legacy, in the art that she made. These dynamic, yet sensitive prints testify to this legacy, documenting as they do the history of Dunedin as, in Charles Brasch’s words, 

“a nurse to the imagination.”

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The exhibition runs to April 12

Please visit!

OLGA
32 Moray Place
Dunedin 9016

olgaolgaolga.co.nz