Marilynn Webb
Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1937, d.2021
Ngāti Kahu,
Te Roroa,
Māori,
Pākehā
Coastline 9
- 1971
- Linoleum engraving and embossing
- Purchased 1971
- 490 x 382mm
- 71/69
Location: Dame Louise Henderson Gallery
Tags: landscapes (representations), monochrome, mountains, natural landscapes, patterns (design elements), stylization
Marilynn Webb grew up near the beach, and her love of watery landscapes was reflected in her printmaking. Her environmental activism led her to depict some of Aotearoa’s most remote wilderness areas, including Ata Whenua Fiordland, the Ida Valley and Rakiura Stewart Island. Coastline 9 is a spare 1971 linocut that combines engraving and embossing in a fluid Otago coastal view and expresses the physical reality of the land and its deeper spiritual dimension. Marilynn made many works about Lake Mahinerangi, where she owned land. The lake was formed when a dam was built on the Waipori River for hydroelectric generation. In her works the water, mountains and sky form a shifting landscape that is alive with presence.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Exhibition History
[1969 Comeback Special, 27 August – 6 November 2016] (https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/exhibitions/1969-comeback-special)
Marilynn Webb is one of the few New Zealand artists to work full-time as a printmaker and she describes her work as being entirely autographic. The New Zealand landscape, and in particular that of Central Otago, has been a recurring source of inspiration. Her Coastline series was completed in Auckland before she was awarded the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship at the University of Otago in 1974 and settled in Dunedin. Webb has often combined print mediums and hand-colouring with her prints, and this work is printed with both engraving and embossing processes. It was purchased by Muir from Christchurch’s Graphic Gallery.
(1969 Comeback Special 27 August – 6 November 2016)