John Bevan Ford

{{Short description|New Zealand artist (1930–2005)}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=November 2022}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox artist | name = John Bevan Ford | honorific_suffix = | image = JBFord-11K-00013 (cropped).jpg | image_size = | alt = Photographic portrait in black and white. John Bevan Ford is an older man in this photo, with a grey beard and expressive face. He looks off to the side. | caption = John Bevan Ford in 1984 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1930|04|18|df=y}} | birth_place = Christchurch, New Zealand | death_date = {{Death date and age|2005|09|16|1930|04|18|df=y}} | death_place = Palmerston North, New Zealand | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | residence = | education = | alma_mater = Wellington Teachers' College | known_for = Painting, carving | notable_works = Te Marae O Hine (Palmerston North) | style = Intricate ink drawings of landscape and kahu / cloak forms based on Māori weaving and carving | movement = | spouse = | partner = | awards =  | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | website =  | module = }}

'''John Bevan Ford''' (18 April 1930 – 16 September 2005) was a New Zealand Māori artist and educator who started exhibiting in 1966. He is a leading figure in contemporary Māori art with art held in all large public collections of New Zealand.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |title=Toi tū, toi ora : contemporary Māori art |date=2022 |others=Nigel Borell, Moana Jackson, Taarati Taiaroa, Auckland Art Gallery |isbn=978-0-14-377673-4 |location=Auckland, New Zealand |oclc=1296712119}}</ref> In 2005 Ford received the Creative New Zealand Te Waka Toi Kingi Ihaka Award.

== Early life and education == Ford was born in 1930 in Christchurch, New Zealand. He was Māori and affiliated to the Ngāti Raukawa tribe.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=John Bevan Ford |url=https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/agent/778 |access-date=2022-11-26 |website=Te Papa}}</ref> He grew up in Christchurch although went to Wellington in his teenage years.<ref name=":3" />

In 1948 Ford began teacher training at Wellington Teachers' College.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Idiens |first=Dale |date=2005-10-13 |title=Obituary: John Bevan Ford |url=http://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/oct/14/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries |access-date=2022-11-26 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref> After Wellington he was selected to go Dunedin Teachers' College to specialise in arts.<ref name=":3" />

==Career== His teacher training coincided with Arthur Gordon Tovey's career, who developed the Department of Education's progressive drive for Māori and Western creativity in schools including employing advisors to go into schools.<ref name=":3" /> Ford was one of these district advisors to schools in arts and crafts from 1952 to 1969.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=John Bevan Ford |url=https://collection.pukeariki.com/persons/1442/john-bevan-ford |access-date=2022-11-26 |website=Puke Ariki Collection Online |language=en}}</ref> Other Māori artists who were also district advisors included Cliff Whiting, Cath Brown, Kāterina Mataira, Sandy Adsett, Ralph Hotere, Paratene Matchitt, Fred Graham (sculptor), Muru Walters, and Marilyn Webb.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" /> This group and others were the beginning of contemporary Māori arts in New Zealand.<ref name=":3" />

He began exhibiting in 1966,<ref name=":4" /> but at the same time he was an educator and taught at Hamilton Teachers' College in the late 1960s to the early 1970s.<ref name=":3" />

In 1973 Ford was one of the people who was part of establishing the Māori Artists and Writers' Association (Nga Puna Waihanga).<ref>{{Cite web |date=1998 |title=John Bevan Ford |url=https://www.komako.org.nz/person/209 |access-date=2022-11-28 |website=Kōmako}}</ref>

He moved to Palmerston North and taught at Massey University, first in the University Extension Department on the adult education art courses.<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Ford, University Extension Department, 1977 |url=https://massey.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/13470 |access-date=2022-11-28 |website=Massey University Library}}</ref> In 1984 he took a lecturer position in Māori studies. He developed two Māori art papers, one on 'traditional' Māori art and the other on 'contemporary' Māori art. From these papers his successor Bob Jahnke established the Massey University's Māori visual arts programme Toioho ki Āpiti, the first indigenous four-year fine arts degree programme anywhere in the world.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2008-04-10 |title=New exhibition showcases Bevan Ford's work - Massey University |url=https://ns-proxy1.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle_uuid=365139EB-96BF-57FE-AB33-BF7BC27DDD62 |access-date=2022-11-28 |website=Massey University, New Zealand |language=en-NZ |archive-date=28 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221128093040/https://ns-proxy1.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle_uuid=365139EB-96BF-57FE-AB33-BF7BC27DDD62 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124338800 |title=Ki Mua, Ki Muri: 25 years of Toiohi ki Āpiti |date=2023-01-01 |publisher=Massey University Press |isbn=978-1-9911511-5-5 |editor-last=Barnett |editor-first=Cassandra |language=English |editor-last2=Rewiri |editor-first2=Kura Te Waru}}</ref>

In 1988 Ford retired from teaching and academia to focus on his art.<ref name=":3" />

Ford presented his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York through a series of lectures in 1990 (he was the first New Zealand artist to do so).<ref name=":0" />

==Art==

Ford is mostly known for his ink drawings of landscape and kahu (cloak - traditional Māori weaving). His paintings have been seen worldwide appearing in more than 20 solo exhibitions.<ref name=":0" /> His paintings reference the Māori art forms of kōwhaiwhai (which are rafter paintings of a wharenui / Māori meeting house) and whakairo (Māori carving patterns).<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=John Bevan Ford |url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/artist/1992/john-bevan-ford |access-date=2022-11-26 |website=Auckland Art Gallery |language=en}}</ref> Notable elements in his work are cloaks floating above significant landforms and pacific rim works where symbols from indigenous pacific rim countries are laid out against outlines of the land.<ref>{{cite web |title=Auckland Art Gallery artist biography |url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/artist/1992/john-bevan-ford?q=/explore-art-and-ideas/artist/1992/john-bevan-}}</ref> His use and research of kōwhaiwhai puts him alongside other contemporary Māori artists who also explored kōwhaiwhai in their art including Paratene Matchitt, John Hovell and Sandy Adsett. Pine Taiapa was someone who taught Ford in this area.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Panoho |first=Rangihiroa |title=Māori art : history, architecture, landscape and theory |date=2015 |others=Mark Adams, Haruhiko Sameshima |isbn=978-1-86953-867-5 |location=Auckland, New Zealand |oclc=911072426}}</ref> Cloaks are used by Ford in many of his artworks. This represents, 'ancestral lineage as well as sacred, collective and personal history...'.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=MacAulay |first=Suzanne |date=2014-09-01 |title=Chronology, Mythology, Invention: John Bevan Ford's Maori Cloak Images |url=https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/905 |journal=Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings}}</ref> thumb|Ōwae marae gateway, Waitara Notable carvings by Ford are the Gateway at Ōwae Marae, Waitara<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nicholas |first=Darcy |date=1988 |title=John Bevan Ford : weaver of lines, history and genealogy |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=49 |pages=51–53}}</ref> and the Meeting House, ''Te Aroha o Aohanga'' in Wairarapa.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Te Aroha O Aohanga (Pāpāuma) {{!}} Maori Maps |url=https://maorimaps.com/marae/te-aroha-o-aohanga-papauma |access-date=2022-11-26 |website=maorimaps.com}}</ref>

Ford designed a logo and artwork that was incorporated into the Palmerston North City Library.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Oral Interview - John Bevan Ford |url=https://manawatuheritage.pncc.govt.nz/item/cf2523df-c549-40a5-92f2-548fdbd3c66f |access-date=2022-11-27 |website=manawatuheritage.pncc.govt.nz |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=White |first=Tina |date=2016-05-19 |title=The city library celebrates a 20-year milestone |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/lifestyle/80128456/the-city-library-celebrates-a-20year-milestone |access-date=2022-11-27 |website=Stuff |language=en}}</ref>

In the Raglan exhibition catalogue of ''Māori Artists of the South Pacific'' (1984) Ford said: "Even when not used directly, the proven symbols of the past provide models by which new symbols may be judged."<ref name=":5" />

His work is featured in the collections of: * The British Museum<ref>{{cite web |title=British Museum Bio and Holding info John Bevan Ford|url= https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG166114}}</ref> * The Ethnological Museum of Berlin<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schindlbeck |first=Markus |date=2018-07-20 |title=0194 Curios and Taonga: Early Māori Collections in Berlin and Their Representation in the Museum für Völkerkunde (now Ethnologisches Museum) |url=https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/rihajournal/article/view/70268 |journal=RIHA Journal |language=en |doi=10.11588/riha.2018.2.70268 |issn=2190-3328}}</ref> * The Linden Museum * The Fries Scheepvaart Museum * The National Gallery of Australia * The Auckland Art Gallery<ref name=":4" /> * Te Papa<ref name=":1" /> * Te Manawa * Puke Ariki<ref name=":2" />

== Exhibitions & residencies == thumb|John Ford Manawatū Art Gallery exhibition programme cover Selected exhibitions:

* ''Contemporary Maori Art,'' National Art Gallery, Wellington (1966)<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |date=September 1992 |title=John Bevan Ford |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/21110338?search%5Bi%5D%5Bsubject_text%5D=Artists%2C+Maori+--+Biography&search%5Bpath%5D=items |journal=Te Waka Toi Contemporary Maori Art from New Zealand |publisher=Te Waka Toi (Council for Maori & South Pacific Arts) |volume=Resource Kit}}</ref> * ''John Ford,'' solo exhibition, Te Manawatū Art Gallery, Palmerston North (1986)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gallery |first=Manawatū Art |date=1986-10-02 |title=John Bevan Ford exhibition programme |url=https://digitalnz.org/records/43173012/john-bevan-ford-exhibition-programme |access-date=2022-11-28 |website=DigitalNZ |language=en}}</ref> * ''Whatu Aho Rua,'' Sergeant Gallery, Whanganui (1989)<ref name=":6" /> * Solo exhibition, Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt (1990)<ref name=":6" /> * ''Kohia ko Taikaka Anake,'' National Art Gallery, Wellington (1990)<ref name=":6" /> * ''Te Waka Toi: Contemporary Maori Art'', (tour to the United States) (1992)<ref name=":6" /> * ''To Horo ki Zealandia Nova'', Gallery Langenberg, Netherlands (1992)<ref name=":6" /> * Artist in residence, British Museum's Māori art exhibition (1998)<ref name=":0" /> * ''He Aho Tangata: the human threads,'' solo exhibition, Te Manawatū Art Gallery, Palmerston North (2008)<ref name=":7" /> * ''Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art,'' Auckland Art Gallery (Sat 5 Dec 2020 – Sun 9 May 2021)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Auckland Art Gallery |url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/toi-tu-toi-ora-contemporary-maori-art?q=/toi-tu-toi-ora-contemporary-maori-art |access-date=2022-11-26 |website=Auckland Art Gallery |language=en}}</ref>

== Honours and awards == John Bevan Ford was awarded the Creative New Zealand Te Waka Toi Kingi Ihaka Award (2005) in acknowledgement of his leadership and outstanding contributions to Māori art.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |last2= |first2= |last3= |first3= |date=22 August 2005 |title=Te Waka Toi celebrates service to the arts |url=https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0508/S00134/te-waka-toi-celebrates-service-to-the-arts.htm |access-date=2022-11-26 |website=Scoop News}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, John Bevan}} Category:1930 births Category:2005 deaths Category:New Zealand Māori carvers Category:New Zealand carvers Category:Ngāti Raukawa people Category:Artists from Christchurch Category:Wellington College of Education alumni Category:Dunedin College of Education alumni Category:Academic staff of Massey University