Honorary law degree for Webb

Marilynn Webb
Marilynn Webb
The University of Otago will confer an honorary doctor of laws degree on a leading Dunedin artist and art educator, Marilynn Webb, at a graduation ceremony today.

She will also give the graduation address.

Vice-chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg said Ms Webb was widely considered to be one of New Zealand's most distinguished and influential artists.

Since early in her long artistic career, she had earned an international reputation for her "highly distinctive print-making", Prof Skegg said.

She has won several national and international awards.

Many of her works are held in private, public and corporate collections throughout the world, including at the Norwegian Contemporary Graphic Museum and the US Library of Congress.

Her art has also been exhibited in New Zealand, Australia, Yugoslavia, Germany, Japan, India, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

Over the years, her art has explored concepts of land, ecology, politics, women in art, and Maori and post-colonial history in ways designed to be easily accessible to the community.

In 1974, she was awarded the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship at Otago University.

She here began developing her pastel work.

She has created several notable series of works on paper, and in woodcuts, paintings and pastel studies.

Her works are based on southern wilderness areas, including Lake Mahinerangi, the Ida Valley, Fiordland and Stewart Island.

In 2000 Ms Webb was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to art and art education.

She has also taught art at secondary and tertiary levels in Dunedin for about 30 years.

From 1988, she lectured in print-making at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art.

In 2004 she was made an emeritus principal lecturer at the school.

She has served as a member of the National Education Monitoring Project for the Ministry of Education and Otago University's Education Assessment Research Unit.

Born in Grey Lynn, Auckland, Ms Webb was educated at Opotiki College, Ardmore Teachers College, Auckland University and, in 1957, at the Dunedin College of Education.

 

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