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Wilson, Arnold Manaaki
(b Ruatoki, Bay of Plenty, NZ, 1928). Maori sculptor. His tribal affiliation is Tuhoe/Takimoana, Te Arawa/Tarawhai. He was the first Maori to graduate with honours in sculpture at the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland (1953). Like many other Maori artists, he pursued a career in art education, enrolling at Auckland Teachers’ College in 1954. Between 1975 and his retirement in 1989 he worked as an education officer for the Department of Education in Auckland and as Director of Te Mauri Pakeaka Cross Community Arts Programme. Wilson was widely acknowledged as one of the most influential artists of the Maori art movement that emerged in the 1950s. Working first in realistic figurative forms made from clay, wood, stone and metal, he moved increasingly towards a stylized multi-media form incorporating aspects of traditional Maori symbolism: he considered that ‘myths and legends have a store of inspiration for us ... the more we look the more is revealed’. After 1989 he worked on a number of commissioned works.
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