Provenance:

Ex Sebastian Black Collection Private Collection, Auckland since 2003

In 1978, Ralph, Cilla and daughter Andrea, stayed for a few weeks in Sebastian Black's house on the Balearic island of Menorca. This was the year in which he did his Avignon paintings commemorating the death of two Popes. In the paintings he places the outline of three stylised fish.

Sebastian Black said, How the intelligentsia had fun. 'Hotere has found another early Christian symbol,' they proclaimed, when the only way to find my house was to follow from the airport direction markers of similarly drawn fish. Of course, Hotere knew what he was creating: both signpost and symbol.