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Overview
In this wax crayon on paper drawing, Don Binney has represented Puketōtara hill at Te Henga, West Auckland in the 'graphic' and 'hard-edged' style characteristic of his art. Binney has allowed the white of the paper to show through in specific areas of the drawing, creating strong highlights that contrast with the black and white tones of the wax crayon, which is soft and picks up the grain of the paper. Puketōtara appears in a number of Binney's paintings, including Puketōtara, twice shy, an oil on canvas painting (also owned by Te Papa) that Binney produced in 1976, the year after this drawing was made.
'A prayer for pure air'
Landscape is an important aspect of Binney's art, and in the 1970s his images became political through a connection to an emerging environmental concern. In his artist's statement for a 1976 exhibition called New Zealand Drawing, Binney wrote: 'Whether or not [my work] relates to any or some of the canons of art topicality I cannot say, though I see nothing inappropriate in offering a prayer for pure air, clean water and growing life in this and the coming century; hence the act of drawing.' For Binney drawings are a talisman against environmental pollution, making the apparently straightforward representation of Puketōtara, Te Henga a more complicated proposition than it might seem.
Landscape of the heart
Te Henga holds a special place in Binney's paintings and drawings. While he has painted and drawn landscapes from around New Zealand (and internationally), Te Henga has been a constant subject. By 1976 Binney had been representing the Te Henga landscape for over fourteen years, and had become closely associated with it. Puketōtara, Te Henga illustrates his long-term fascination with this particular place. It also marks the end of Binney's close association with the coast, as his work from the 1980s onwards began to pay attention to other iconic landscapes of New Zealand.