Story: Painting

Although Gordon Walters had first used the koru (unfurling fern) shape in 1956, it was not until the mid-1960s that he simplified the idea in a way that satisfied him. This painting was exhibited in his first major solo show in 1966. It shows clearly the two traditions that met in his work – the traditional Māori koru shape, which he straightened, and European abstract art. Here, we see the way Walters confounded figure and ground, so that while the white koru on the left are figures against a black background, as we move to the right the white becomes the ground against which the black koru emerge.