Untitled

This ink on paper study belongs to a large series of images that Theo Schoon produced in the early 1960s. Schoon was fascinated by the possibilities of Māori design, especially kōwhaiwhai patterns, which are applied to the heke (rafters) in wharenui (meeting houses). All of these works, no matter whether sketches or finished paintings, are linked by Schoon's interest in the variety that results from repeating a limited range of motifs. He was attracted to the way in which Māori art plays with positive and negative elements to create sophisticated designs.

Theo Schoon and kōwhaiwhai patterns
As this image reveals, Schoon isn't interested in copying the Māori sources that he studied. Rather, he adapts elements of kōwhaiwhai - like the koru, the mango pare, and the rape rape - to create an abstract composition. This isn't Māori art, and Schoon's study is not kōwhaiwhai. Rather, Schoon was keen to develop a kind of indigenous modern art. Untitled reveals how important Māori art became in Schoon's struggle to achieve this goal.

Ideas of art and craft
Schoon was educated in the Netherlands and travelled widely in Europe. While his art school training was conservative, Schoon knew about the Bauhaus, a German art and design school that revolutionised 20th-century art. The Bauhaus taught that divisions between art and craft were illusory, and both were equally valid artistic expressions. Schoon's ink on paper study points to his interest in other art forms. For example, patterns similar to this were carved on gourds especially grown by Schoon. The idea was always more important to Schoon than the media in which it was presented.

Theo Schoon Archive
Te Papa holds the Theo Schoon Archive, which is the largest collection of Schoon's photography, drawing, and work with ceramics in New Zealand.