An Otago Museum exhibition of ceramics from the collection of the late Dunedin painter Ralph Hotere offers new insights into his artistic interests and friendships.
Museum humanities curator Moira White said Hotere was widely known and respected as a painter, but his friendships with New Zealand potters and his interest in their ceramics were less widely understood.
''People don't usually think of Ralph Hotere in terms of his interest with ceramics,'' Ms White said.
The exhibition, titled ''Intersections: Ceramics from Ralph Hotere's Personal Collection'' opens to the public at the museum's 1877 Gallery today.
It features more than 70 pieces, many by notable New Zealand ceramicists from the collection, which has been acquired by the museum.
The pieces include both pots and statues and represent some of the artists Hotere admired and spent time with, the work he bought or exchanged, and those he collected and retained for personal reasons.
Hotere's friendship with potter Barry Brickell was ''very important'' in showing him the appeal of pots and their making, including firing, she said.
''The stories of these pieces and the artists who made them are interwoven with the stories of Ralph Hotere's life.''
Ms White, who developed the exhibition, said about 40 of the ceramic pieces had been made by Brickell.
While his Driving Creek, Coromandel, studio was under construction in 1975, Brickell moved to Dunedin and Hotere provided him with a house and studio in Port Chalmers.
Brickell built a kiln there and fired it, reaching temperatures of up to 1300degC, using waste pine bark from the wharf at Port Chalmers.
Pots which Brickell fired in this kiln were exhibited at Dunedin's Bosshard Gallery in 1977, with works by Hotere and Michael Trumic.
Hotere's ceramics collection also features the work of several other notable New Zealand potters, including Nicholas Brandon, Mirek Smdaek and Dunedin artist Adair Bruce.
Two Hotere paintings, loaned by Brickell, have also been added to the museum exhibition.
These works are from Hotere's Test Piece series, which was inspired by Brickell's Port Chalmers kiln firings.
They showed how Hotere was influenced by Brickell firing pots, just as Brickell was influenced by Hotere, particularly in his painting, Ms White said.
The show runs until September 6.
