INFO
| Name | Buck Nin (he/him) |
| Also known as | Buck Loy Nin |
| Born | 1942 |
| Died | 1996 |
| Country of Birth | Aotearoa |
| Ethnicities | Chinese (Cantonese), Māori (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa) |
| Artform | Visual arts |
| Decades Active | 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s |
ABOUT
Buck Nin was an artist, educator, and curator who was at the forefront of the Māori art movement in the 1960s. Being Māori-Chinese, he was also one of the first Asian artists active in the New Zealand art scene in the 20th century. Through his work, Nin contributed to the revitalisation and promotion of Māori art practice in museums, art galleries, and the education system.
Nin’s father, 鐘松年 (Choung Nin), was from Guangzhou, China, and lived in Māngere after moving to Aotearoa, while his Māori mother, Pare Hikanga Tatana, had grown up in Horowhenua. Buck Nin was raised in Kaikohe, where, by that time, his family had a market garden. At Northland College (where Nin was Dux in 1960), he was encouraged to pursue being an artist by Selwyn Wilson (part of the influential Tovey generation, which saw the encouragement of Māori arts and culture in schools). Nin did go to art school — attending Elam in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, before relocating to Ōtautahi Christchurch, where he finished his studies at Ilam under German expressionist painter, Rudi Gopas.
In 1966, Nin organised the exhibition New Zealand Māori Culture and the Contemporary Scene at Canterbury Museum, with Baden Pere. It was the first museum exhibition to survey contemporary Māori art, featuring artists who were reinterpreting Māori art practices such as whakairo within a Western art context. At the time, Nin said, “the rich inheritance of the Maori people, here interpreted in modern forms, may well provide a major source of inspiration for the future”.
Nin’s own paintings were exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions — both in Aotearoa and overseas from the 1960s onwards. He is also remembered for his contribution to the restoration of Rongopai, the painted wharenui at Waituhi, on the East Coast, which he worked on alongside other important Māori artists of his generation, such as Cliff Whiting. Alongside artists like Whiting, Robin Kahukiwa, Darcy Nicholas, Ralph Hotere and Paratene Matchitt, Nin helped shape the contemporary Māori art movement, advocating for the development of contemporary practice that also connected to and continued living ancestral traditions.
Nin incorporated forms from customary Māori arts such as kowhaiwhai and whakairo into his works, depicting land and sky as Papatūānuku and Ranginui. Reconnecting people, whenua (land) and ancestry was the driving interest in his practice, having been witness to Māori urban migration throughout his life. Fellow artist Selwyn Muru described Nin’s work as “forever in a state of change and renewal. Earth and Sky play their own tricks and games. At times eerie light and shadows appear to evoke Hawaiki. Hawaiki of the distant past; Hawaiki in the dimness of time.”
A number of his works reflect the decade’s Māori political activism, including the painting This Land Is Ours (circa 1978), painted around the same time Nin was participating in the Māori land hīkoi led by Whina Cooper, and the Bastion Point occupation.
Nin moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1978, where he completed a Master of Education Administration, followed by a PhD in Arts Administration and Management in Texas in 1981. His influence as an arts administrator and educator continues to be felt; he was involved in the establishment of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and a founding member of the Māori Artists and Writers Association (the precursor to Ngā Puna Waihanga, and later, Toi Māori Aotearoa).
After his death in 1996, following lifelong poor health, Nin was honoured with a major exhibition at Porirua Museum of Art and History (now Pātaka), which also toured to Christchurch Art Gallery. In the exhibition text for Forever Buck Nin, Nin is remembered for his many achievements as an artist, but also his entrepreneurial spirit: “exploits such as the black velvet portraits of 1966, the microwave hangi, experiments with wind-generated power, developing emergency cardboard box houses and exporting dried meat to China.”
LINKS
Key works / presentations
2020-2021 — Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art, Auckland Art Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau
1999 — Forever Buck Nin, Pātaka Art + Museum, Pōneke, retrospective touring exhibition
1992 — Te Waka Toi: Contemporary Maori Art, tour to the United States
1990 — Kohia ko Taikaka Anake, National Art Gallery, Pōneke
1976 — Contemporary Maori Art, Waikato Museum of Art and History, Kirikiriroa
1976 — South Pacific Festival of the Arts, Rotorua
1966 — New Zealand Māori Culture and the Contemporary Scene, Canterbury Museum, Ōtautahi
Key awards
1993 — Visa Gold Art Award, finalist
1968 — Benson & Hedges Art Award
