Gordon Walters

Gordon Walters (1919–1995) remains one of New Zealand’s most significant and influential modernists, best known for his paintings employing a version of the koru—the curving bulb form drawn from Māori moko and kōwhaiwhai rafter patterns. From 1956 until his death, Walters undertook a rigorous investigation of the koru in the context of international modernism. He Mondrian-ised the form, straightening and regimenting its scroll-like curves, shifting it from organic to graphic, strictly geometric formalism.

Walters met Theo Schoon in 1941, and their friendship became a catalytic force in Walters’ engagement with modernist principles and Māori visual culture. Schoon, trained in Rotterdam and steeped in European avant-garde traditions, introduced Walters to the formal possibilities of abstraction and the symbolic richness of Māori art. Schoon’s influence extended beyond aesthetics; he exposed Walters to Rolfe Hattaway’s drawings from the Auckland mental hospital, which further deepened Walters’ interest in the psychological and symbolic dimensions of mark-making. A visit to Europe introduced Walters to the art of Auguste Herbin, another formative influence.

Gallerist Petar Vuletic’s inclusion of Walters in his stable in the 1980s highlighted Walters embrace of international abstraction and a rejection of nationalist or figurative constraints. Vuletic championed a purist formalism, positioning Walters alongside Milan Mrkusich and other proponents of non-objective art. Walters’ immediately recognisable later work has clear affinities with the Op Art of artists like Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley, creating optical effects with closely spaced parallel lines, positive and negative space, and judicious colour-weighting. Walters’ work is rapidly being recognised as being of global significance and is finding a receptive audience internationally.

The Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki presented a retrospective in 1983 and the survey exhibition Parallel Lines in 1994. Walters is a revered figure in New Zealand art history, recognised for a long and productive career spanning five decades. His centrality to New Zealand art and identity was recognised by his inclusion in the seminal touring exhibition Headlands: Thinking Through New Zealand Art in 1992. His work has featured in numerous group exhibitions, including a major updating of the New Zealand art-historical canon, A Very Peculiar Practice: Aspects of Recent New Zealand Art at City Gallery Wellington in 1995. Walters is represented in all major public collections, and his legacy is memorialised in the biannual Walters Prize exhibition and award at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

In 2014, Starkwhite and the Walters Estate staged a focused exhibition at Art Basel Hong Kong, presenting koru paintings from 1956–1983 alongside Chrysanthemum (1944), a pivotal early work. The 2023 launch of the comprehensive monograph Gordon Walters, researched and written over several years by Dr Francis Pound, published by Auckland University Press, marked a major milestone in the scholarship surrounding Walters’ practice.

Starkwhite is proud to partner with the Walters Estate, reaffirming its commitment to advancing the understanding and reach of Walters’ artistic legacy within Aotearoa and internationally.

Artist CV ↓

Gordon Walters | STARKWHITE

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