Selwyn Muru

Selwyn Frederick Muru (6 September 1937 – 24 January 2024), also known as Herewini Murupaenga, was a New Zealand artist. Of Māori descent (Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Kurī), his life's work included painting, sculpture, journalism, broadcasting, directing, acting, set design, theatre, poetry, and whaikōrero. Muru was awarded the Te Tohu Aroha mō Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu | Exemplary/Supreme Award in 1990 at the Creative New Zealand Te Waka Awards.

Biography

Muru was born in Te Hāpua, Northland in 1937. He was Māori and affiliated with the iwi, Te Aupōuri and Ngāti Kurī. He was a self-taught artist, although he did receive some instruction from Kāterina Mataira while at Northland College.

After a solo exhibition and a feature article in Te Ao Hou, by 1964 Muru had become established as an artist.

Muru, poet Hone Tuwhare and artist Para Matchitt founded the Māori Writers and Artists’ Association (Nga Puna Waihanga) in 1973.

Muru died in the Auckland suburb of Point Chevalier on 24 January 2024, at the age of 86.

Broadcasting In 1967, Muru was appointed assistant to the Head of Programmes, New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation.

Artwork alt=A wooden carved entrance arch in the middle of the photo. The arch is triangular with two posts and is quite large. The carvings are a mixture of shapes and some stick out of the top.

A significant public sculpture by Muru is Waharoa (1990), an entrance gate to Aotea Square in Auckland. Represented are carvings of Tama-nui-te-rā (god of the sun), Tangaroa (god of the sea), Tāne-mahuta (god of the forest), Tāwhiri-mātea (god of the elements) and Whetū me te Marama (the crescent moon and stars).

Muru's work with recycled timber in the 1980s has been described as a 'leitmotif' or recurrent theme amongst several Māori artists including Ralph Hotere, Para Matchitt and Bruce Stewart by art critic Rangihiroa Panaho. Panaho calls this a re-appropriation.

Curator Nigel Borell displayed two of Muru's artworks in the 2022 survey of contemporary Māori art Toi Tū Toi Ora at Auckland Art Gallery – Resurrections of Te Whiti over Taranaki (1975–77) and Te Whiti and Tohu over Taranaki (1975–77), paintings that feature the mountain Taranaki and the Māori leaders Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi.

Collections that hold his work include Te Papa and Auckland Art Gallery. Contemporary New Zealand Art, Japan and South East Asia (1963) New Zealand Māori Council exhibition, National Art Gallery, Wellington (1969) Contemporary Maori Art, Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton (1976) Kohia ko Taikaka Anake, National Art Gallery, Wellington (1990) Te Waka Toi: Contemporary Maori Art, tour to the United States (1992) Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art, Auckland Art Gallery (5 December 2020 – 9 May 2021)