Suburb

Born in Taumaranui, Buster Pihema (Black), Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Rangi, 1932 – 2007, was a respected if somewhat enigmatic figure of the Tāmaki Makaurau art scene in the 1960s. Pihema moved to Auckland c. 1954 and attended painting classes held by Colin McCahon at Auckland Art Gallery in 1956. When the McCahon family moved from Titirangi to Grey Lynn, Pihema became a regular visitor, close friend, and spiritual confidant of McCahon.

The colour black had political and cultural implications for Pihama, expressing Te Po, the night, a period of potential within Māori knowledge systems related to Hine Nui Te Po. Black adopted the name Buster Black to signal the symbolic power of the colour to his identity and as an ironic response to the racism and abuse he experienced in his life. Going by the name Buster Black, he aligned himself with the American Black Panther Party (B.P.P) and Polynesian Panther (P.P.P) movements respectfully.

Suburb was originally gifted by Anne and Colin McCahon to their daughter Victoria and her husband Ken Carr when they purchased their first home in Grey Lynn in1968. Pihama’s nightscapes are considered visionary, and this birds eye view at dusk is one of several incorporating match sticks as houses creating the ‘jumpy’ surface tension he and McCahon shared various techniques to achieve. As Pihama destroyed a great volume of his artworks in 1980’s, this gift from Mrs Carr after her parents remains remarkably distinguished

and rare.

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