Teuane Tibbo

Name
Teuane Tibbo
Date of birth
02 Oct 1895
Place of birth
Sāmoa
Date of death
24 May 1984
Place of death
Auckland (region)/New Zealand
Gender
Female
Biography
Teuane Tibbo was born in Vaimea, Sāmoa. Tibbo is one of the foundational figures in the development of contemporary Pacific art in Aotearoa. She was the first Sāmoan artist to exhibit her work within a mainstream art gallery in Aotearoa. Tibbo began painting at the age of 69. She was introduced to Pat Hanly, who convinced Barry Lett to exhibit and represent her work, resulting in Tibbo holding her first solo exhibition at Uptown Gallery in 1964 at 70 years of age. Tibbo’s paintings recalled memories of her time living in different Pacific Islands including Sāmoa and Fiji before she migrated to New Zealand in 1945. She is briefly documented within New Zealand’s art history, propelled by the novelty of her late start to painting that saw her labelled as the ‘Grandma Moses of the Pacific.’ [see Bronwyn Fletcher] She had an impact on celebrated New Zealand artists Michael Illingworth, Tony Fomison and Pat Hanly who observed her paint and had expressed their own desire “…to abandon preconceived rules and conventions to create a situation where they could harness the essence of pure creativity.”

Alongside two other exhibitions at the Barry Lett Gallery, Tibbo’s work featured in the landmark exhibition Te Moemoea no Iotefa – The Dream of Joseph in 1990–91 at Sarjeant Gallery in Wanganui, curated by Dr. Rangihiroa Panoho. Related exhibition archives show that four works were selected for inclusion: 7 wise men (1972); Boat of the Reed (date unspecified); Bowl of Flowers (date unspecified) and Firewalkers (1973). The last two works were loaned from Denis Cohn and Bill Vernon, so it is likely that there is some discrepancy in the recording of artwork details and that Cohn
and Vernon’s works are the two in the Gallery’s collection registered as Vase of Flowers (circa 1965) and Firewalkers (1978).
A recent resurgence of interest in Teuane Tibbo’s work has ensued since Home AKL (2012) at Toi o Tāmaki which exhibited 5 of her artworks including loaned works from Te Papa and the University of Auckland alongside the Gallery’s holdings. Her works were recently featured in other exhibitions including: Remnants of the Banished (2016) at Michael Lett Gallery and This is a Library (2020) at Enjoy Public Art Gallery in Wellington.
A modest retrospective exhibition of her work, Keep It in the Heart: The Paintings of Teuane Tibbo was held at Lopdell House in Titirangi in 2002. Apart from this, there have not been other exhibitions or publications that have examined the scope of Tibbo’s influence in New Zealand art. There are few archival records of her work across institutions – a number at the Hocken Library but currently none in our own research holdings.