Marilynn Webb


Marilynn Lois Webb is a New Zealand artist. Her works are held in art collections in New Zealand, the United States, and Norway. Marilynn went on study leave between 1962-1963 and travelled to Spain, England and North Africa. Marilynn also ran teacher training courses in Suva, Fiji. This was where she worked on "intaglio hill from prints and early coastline images." Webb was later invited to exhibit in 2nd Graphic Triennale New Delhi, India; 7th International Exhibition of Graphic Art, Tokyo; Expo, Osaka, Japan. in 1970.

Background

Marilynn Webb was born 11 September 1937 in Grey Lynn, Auckland, New Zealand, daughter of Trevor James Webb and Elizabeth Vaiven Webb, née Turner. She is of Māori and European descent.
Marilynn Webb is the direct descendant of Moe Ngaherehere, the 47th signatory of the Treaty of Waitangi . Her birth in Auckland was the result of her mother having previously lost children in Opotiki. Her maternal grandmother oversaw her birth in Auckland, and at a few days old she returned from Auckland to Opotiki on a scow. She was raised in Opotiki, where she attended primary and secondary school.
Her son, Benedict Ben Webb, was also an artist.
Webb studied at Opotiki College, Ardmore Teachers' College, and the University of Auckland. From 1957 she studied at the Dunedin Teachers' College. She trained under the Arts Advisory Scheme and worked as an arts adviser for the Department of Education in Auckland and Northland, and the Northern Māori Project. In 1974 she began the development of her pastel work at the University of Otago.

Career

Webb is known for her printmaking and has also created paintings, pastels, and hand-coloured works. Her art explores concepts of land, ecology, politics, women in art, and Māori and post-colonial history. Her landscapes reflect her passionate environmentalism and include depictions of Lake Mahinerangi, the Ida Valley, Fiordland, and Stewart Island. Working closely with the Eastern Southland Gallery, and Southland Museum & Art Gallery provided the opportunity to work with the wider Southland Community. The Southland Art Foundation project Hodges, to Hodgkins to Here and In Hodges Wake provided the opportunity to work closely with the Department of Conservation where she explored Doubtful Sound and Dusky Sound, in particular. She formed part of the artist team who worked on the Southland Art Foundation project in 2000, and was part of the Department of Conservation project Tamatea, which highlighted the fragility of the Dusky Sound ecology.
Webb has exhibited prolifically and been involved in over 180 exhibitions and over 35 curated exhibitions/symposiums, including internationally in Australia, United States, India, Japan, Yugoslavia, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom.
Specifically she has exhibited with:
Works by Webb are held in the collections of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Norwegian Contemporary Graphic Museum, and the US Library of Congress.
She is the author, with Bridie Lonie, of the book Marilynn Webb: Prints and Pastels.
Webb has taught art for over thirty years at secondary and tertiary levels in Dunedin. From 1988, she lectured in printmaking at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art and in 2004 was made an emeritus principal lecturer at the school. She has served as a member of the National Education Monitoring Project for the Ministry of Education, the university's Educational Assessment Research Unit, and is a governor of the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.

Honours and awards

In 1974, Webb was awarded the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship.
in 2000, Webb was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2000 New Year Honours, for services to art and art education.
In 2010, the University of Otago awarded her an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
In 2011, Webb was awarded Nga Tohu a Ta Kingi Ihaka for her lifetime of achievement in art and leadership as a Maori artist at the Creative New Zealand Te Waka Toi Awards.
In 2018, Webb was awarded Te Tohu Aroha mō Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, the Supreme Award for excellence and achievement in Ngā Toi Māori, at the Creative New Zealand Te Waka Toi Awards.