Provenance:
Private Collection, Wellington
Purchased 1970 from Dawsons Gallery, Dunedin by the current owner.

Exhibited:
Ralph Hotere - Frances Hodgkins Fellowship Exhibition, Otago Museum, Dunedin 1969

1969 was a watershed year for Northland born Ralph Hotere. In this year he was awarded the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship at the University of Otago. This led to his permanent move to the Otago region and Port Chalmers. In his enigmatic series of Black Paintings from 1968 and 1969, pinstripe circles or lines pierce the void of the dark backgrounds.

Another work from the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship Exhibition was the first purely abstract painting to enter the collection of Christchurch Art Gallery. It was also the first contemporary painting by a Maori artist to be acquired by the gallery.