Pauline Kahurangi Yearbury (; 31 December 1926 – 27 May 1977) was a New Zealand artist. She is considered a leading practitioner in Māori modernist art, and her work is held by the Whangarei Museum,

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions. Set be ...

and Russell Museum.

Biography

Yearbury was born in 1926 in

Matauri Bay Matauri Bay ( mi, Mātauri) is a bay in New Zealand, situated 30 km north of Kerikeri, in Whangaroa county, just north of the Bay of Islands. It has over a kilometre of white sand and crystal clear water, making it a popular summer destina ...

, Northland, New Zealand to Valentine Blomfield and Waiatua Hikuwai Ihaia. She went to school in

Russell Russell may refer to: People * Russell (given name) * Russell (surname) * Lady Russell (disambiguation) * Lord Russell (disambiguation) Places Australia *Russell, Australian Capital Territory *Russell Island, Queensland (disambiguation) **Ru ...

and in 1943 moved to Auckland to attend

Elam School of Fine Arts The Elam School of Fine Arts, founded by John Edward Elam, is part of the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries at the University of Auckland. Students study degrees in fine art with an emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach. The schoo ...

. She was one of the first two Māori women who studied at the school. Among other subjects, she learnt painting with John Weeks and mural design with

Archie Fisher Archie Macdonald Fisher (born 23 October 1939) is a Scottish folk singer and songwriter. He has released several solo albums since his first, eponymous album, in 1968. Fisher composed the song "The Final Trawl", recorded on the album ''Windwa ...

, the head of the school. After graduating, she taught at the school. In 1951 Yearbury moved back to Russell and worked creating murals and signs and tutoring in art. One of her largest murals was created in collaboration with her husband Jim - a nine-metre-long depiction of the signing of the

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi ( mi, Te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a document of central importance to the history, to the political constitution of the state, and to the national mythos of New Zealand. It has played a major role in the treatment of the M ...

for Waitangi Hotel in 1964. From 1966 to 1977 the couple also ran an art studio in the town, which displayed and sold the couple's wood panels of legendary Māori figures – these were designed by Yearbury and incised and coloured by her husband. In 1976 Yearbury published ''The Children of Rangi and Papa,'' an illustrated book telling the Māori story of creation. The publication was made possible by a grant from the Māori Purposes Fund Board. The text was based on George Grey's book ''Polynesian Mythology,'' and the foreword was written by Member of Parliament

Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan Tini "Whetu" Marama Tirikatene-Sullivan (9 January 1932 – 20 July 2011) was a New Zealand politician. She was an MP from 1967 to 1996, representing the Labour Party, and was New Zealand’s first Māori woman cabinet minister. At the time of ...

. Yearbury's illustrations intended to "create a bridge between the European style of realism and the traditional Māori carving". Yearbury's work was part of the First Māori Festival of the Arts held in 1963 at

Ngāruawāhia Ngāruawāhia () is a town in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located north-west of Hamilton at the confluence of the Waikato and Waipā Rivers, adjacent to the Hakarimata Range. Ngāruawāhia is in the Hamilton Ur ...

, and was also part of the exhibition New Zealand Māori Culture and the Contemporary Scene held at Canterbury Museum in 1966 curated by

Buck Nin Buck Loy Nin (1942–1996) was a New Zealand artist influential in the development of contemporary Māori art in Aotearoa New Zealand. His landscape paintings have been included in survey exhibitions of contemporary Māori art including ''Te Wa ...

; this exhibition was the first major exhibition of Māori art in a significant museum in New Zealand. The Department of External Affairs later funded the exhibition to tour to Sydney, Apia, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Legacy

In 2014, her painting ''Papatuanuku and Ranginui'' was featured on a

New Zealand Post NZ Post ( mi, Tukurau Aotearoa), shortened from New Zealand Post, is a state-owned enterprise responsible for providing postal service in New Zealand. The New Zealand Post Office, a government agency, provided postal, banking, and telecommunica ...

postage stamp.

Personal life

Yearbury married Jim Yearbury, a fellow student at Elam School of Fine Arts. She was of the

Ngāpuhi Ngāpuhi (or Ngā Puhi) is a Māori iwi associated with the Northland region of New Zealand and centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands, and Whangārei. According to the 2018 New Zealand census, the estimated population of Ngāpuhi is 165, ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yearbury, Pauline 1926 births 1977 deaths People from Russell, New Zealand 20th-century New Zealand artists Ngāpuhi people Elam Art School alumni New Zealand Māori artists 20th-century New Zealand women artists New Zealand women painters New Zealand muralists Women muralists