Transformation: The Val Raymond Legacy Art Exhibition

Last day Monday 28th March 2022 at Taupo Museum & Art Gallery

History will likely portray the late Val Raymond as an ethical artist. Her earlier work was known for portraiture and landscapes. Generous to a fault, she gratefully gifted most of her portraits of Maori Kuia to those women who sat for her in the 1950s and 60s. “They taught me so much I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she explained.

Her oil and water colour landscapes sold well throughout New Zealand and overseas, but the turning point in her artistic career was when she became a fulltime professional artist in the mid 1980s. She then had the time and drive to finesse her painting techniques, particularly with water colour. Critically the purpose of her painting compositions and techniques transitioned dramatically. Her ‘abstract expressions’ enabled her to combine subjects previously treated separately. For example landscape and legend; New Zealand birdlife, history and art.

Val Raymond, a conservationist and environmentalist, focused endlessly to capture the heritage and the spirit of her beloved Lake Taupo, Central North Island home – inclusive of its Ngati Tuwharetoa legends, history and arts.

She worked in close association with Paramount Chief Sir Tumu Te Heuheu and his family, to gain accompanied access in 1990 to research and draw the 23 Ngati Tuwharetoa Marae. Twenty years later she was again given accompanied access to research and paint the 10 Ngati Tuwharetoa Marae Churches.

After these two unique collections were completed and publicly exhibited, Val Raymond gifted them to the Ngati Tuwharetoa people. “It’s where they belong,” she said. After her death in 2021, she was aptly described as :

“A quiet activist who helped to bridge New Zealand’s cultural gap.”

Don’t miss this extraordinary legacy exhibition of Val Raymond’s drawings and paintings. Most exhibited works are from her own private collection and her children’s private collections. Some have never been seen publicly before and it’s unlikely they will be exhibited together again.

9 of the 64 paintings in her highly acclaimed “Millenium 2000 – A Celebration of Feather and Fibre Exhibition” are in this TRANSFORMATION Legacy Exhibition. Val Raymond rated her thought-provoking Millenium 2000 Collection to be the peak of her artistic career. She described these 64 abstract expressions as my ‘New Zealand Heritage Paintings.’

All her paintings and books inclusive of Ngati Tuwharetoa heritage and arts, have been blessed by senior Ngati Tuwharetoa Kamatua, supported by Paramount Chief Ariki Sir Tumu Te Heuheu.

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