COLIN MCCAHON 1919-1987 Domestic Landscape 1957 oil on canvas signed and dated 'McCahon Jan 57' lower left; dated 'FEB 57' lower centre; signed, dated and inscribed 'COLIN MCCAHON / DOMESTIC LANDSCAPE / Jan Feb August 1957' verso 61.1 x 51.2 cm PROVENANCE Colin McCahon Private Collection Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney Private Collection, Sydney, acquired from the above LITERATURE Colin McCahon Database (www.mccahon.co.nz) cm1389
COLIN MCCAHON (New Zealand, 1919 - 1987) FLOODGATE I, 1964 - 65 oil on composition board 91.0 x 76.5 cm signed and dated lower left: McCahon '64 '65 signed, dated and inscribed verso: Colin McCahon. / FLOODGATE I / 1964 1965 PROVENANCE Peter McLeavey, Wellington, New Zealand Rosalie Gascoigne, Canberra, acquired from the above in 1983 Thence by descent Private collection, Canberra EXHIBITED From the Studio of Rosalie Gascoigne, Australian National University, Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra, 5 September - 12 November 2000, cat. 39 LITERATURE Gascoigne, M., Rosalie Gascoigne. A Catalogue Raisonné, ANU Press, Canberra, 2019, pp. 74, 327 Colin McCahon Online Catalogue, https://www.mccahon.co.nz/cm001466 [accessed 16/5/23] RELATED WORK Floodgate 2, 1965, enamel on hardboard, 102.0 x 68.9 cm, private collection ESSAY In late 1983, survey shows by New Zealander Colin McCahon and New Zealand-born Australian sculptor Rosalie Gascoigne were shown simultaneously at the National Art Gallery in Wellington. Rosalie Gascoigne Sculpture 1975 – 1982 (11 works) was her first exhibition in the land of her birth; Colin McCahon: The Mystical Landscape was a survey featuring 36 works, mostly from the extensive holdings of his work at the National Art Gallery. Gascoigne went to New Zealand for the occasion and, evidently impressed by McCahon’s work, purchased from the stockroom of Peter McLeavey, his Wellington dealer, the present work painted 20 years earlier: Floodgate 1, 1964 – 65. It was one of a pair – the other being Floodgate 2, 1965 – which, McCahon informed McLeavey, belonged to his wife, Anne. Neither work seems ever to have been publicly exhibited in his lifetime. The year 1964 was one of significant change for McCahon. After twelve busy years as keeper and deputy director at Auckland City Art Gallery (1953 – 64) he resigned to take up a teaching position at the School of Art in the University of Auckland – a position he held for seven years before retiring to paint full-time in 1971. The change immediately led to new developments in his work. In particular, he began a vast series of waterfall paintings, ranging in size from very small to very large; around 100 of them are shown on the McCahon Online Catalogue.1 The exhibition Small Landscapes and Waterfalls at Auckland’s Ikon Gallery in September 1984 was virtually a sell-out and marked a sudden increase in popularity for the artist. The Floodgate paintings can be seen as a development of the waterfall motif in that they also depict flowing water, but not as a curving arc in profile as seen in most of the Waterfall series, but from above – as in a bird’s eye view or architectural plan. A second element in the Floodgates is the large rectangular black shapes whose hard edges and right angles suggest things man-made, rather than natural hill shapes as in most of the Waterfalls; these, presumably, are the ‘floodgates’. As the titles suggest, these black shapes relate closely to the abstract Gate paintings of earlier in the decade (1961 – 62) – and – in juxtaposing natural and man-made elements – more distantly to On building bridges: triptych, 1952. In the Gate series, dark quasi-rectangular shapes are both barriers (political, social, artistic, spiritual, formal) and openings or ways through. In Floodgates, by fusing the imagery of these contrasted series – gates, waterfalls – McCahon translates the imagery of barriers and openings to a landscape-related context, thereby melding abstraction and realism in a new way. Here the squarish Floodgate 1 is dominated by the large black rectangular form thrusting diagonally upwards from bottom left towards upper right, the shape being dramatically cropped by the frame. A second black form, narrow and tapering, extends from the top down the right side of the painting. The small gap between them, through which (in a landscape reading) creamy white water is turbulently gushing, is the focal point of the painting. Agitated water also enters horizontally into the picture from the right. Turbulence is suggested by dark wavy lines running through the billowing foam, debouching into a calmer less agitated region in the bottom right segment of the work. Everything about the painting is angular, asymmetrical, dynamic – conveying a sense of vast and barely controllable forces. It is an authoritative and forceful painting, unique (with its sibling) in its imagery, but at the same time integral through its connection to earlier series to McCahon’s evolving direction. Indeed, Rosalie Gascoigne showed bold and refined taste in choosing it for her collection. 1. www. mccahon.co.nz PETER SIMPSON Courtesy of the Colin McCahon Research and Publication Trust.
COLIN McCAHON (1919-1987) Kauri Tree 1954 lithograph 33.6 x 24.7 cm (sheet) edition: 10/55 signed and dated lower left: McCahon 54 numbered lower centre: 10/55
Colin McCahon The First Bellini Madonna (Second Version) 1961 enamel on board signed C.M and dated OCT.'61 in brushpoint lower right; inscribed THE FIRST BELLINI MADONNA. (SECOND VERSION) in brushpoint lower edge 1205 x 755mm PROVENANCE Private collection, New South Wales. EXHIBITIONS Colin McCahon: A Question of Faith, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 30 August - 10 November 2002; City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand, 7 December 2002 - 9 March 2003; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland, 29 March - 15 June; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 4 July - 7 September; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 15 November - 16 January 2004. LITERATURE Marja Bloem & Martin Browne, Colin McCahon: A Question of Faith (Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum; Nelson: Craig Potton, 2002), 92, 196, 197. NOTE Colin McCahon Online Catalogue (www.mccahon.co.nz) number: cm001516. Colin McCahon - The First Bellini Madonna (Second Version) Essay by KELLY CARMICHAEL Over the course of his career, Colin McCahon could be variously defined as a landscape artist, a figurative painter, a regionalist, and an innovator for his use of painted text. Perhaps the two most defining thematics of his practice, however, are McCahon’s relationship with religion and his abstraction. The First Bellini Madonna (Second Version) (1961) incorporates these two incredibly strong trajectories of McCahon’s practice. This work is one of a series of four known works by McCahon responding to Venetian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini. McCahon was a lover of Bellini, and scholar Gordon H. Brown relates that, after discovering a colour plate showing Bellini’s The Pieta with St John, McCahon was so moved he slammed the book shut until he could recover his composure.¹ The Bellini Madonna series is said to be based on Bellini’s The Alzano Madonna/Madonna with a Pear (c.1485). The artist’s son William McCahon recalls that the series came from the time McCahon underwent religious instruction within the Catholic Church and, in particular, the trouble he was having with some of the doctrine around the bodily assumption of the Virgin Mary. At first glance Bellini’s sumptuous Madonna and Child seems unlikely source material for this series of abstract paintings, yet connections and allusions reveal themselves.. As in the Bellini, colour is a rich and allegorical component. Horizontal and vertical axes (the ‘implied cross’ composition of Christ symbolism) in both works become apparent, as do some of the tonal and textural qualities of background and drapery. The line created by the Christ child’s plump leg leading us to Bellini’s signature now becomes a diagonal black line defining the golden triangle in the lower right corner of the work, pointing to the work’s title written by McCahon in small capitals. McCahon has also replicated Bellini’s celebrated parapet seen in The Alzano Madonna, the compositional device that acts as a low barrier in the foreground of many of Bellini’s images of the Madonna and Child intended for private devotion. In many paintings, Bellini conspicuously placed his signature on this parapet, as does McCahon, using his initials here. More than just a convenient spot to place the pear – considered a symbol of virginity – the red marble parapet creates an illusion of three-dimensional space, functioning as a visual enticement for the viewer to look beyond, and into the painting. Most striking about the work is the geometric blocks that make up the composition and the way the vertical and horizontal are split with a diagonal/triangular overlay. Here we might imagine McCahon extracting the abstraction he sensed in Bellini’s original. Painted between 1961 and 1962, The Bellini Madonna series came shortly after McCahon’s transformative trip to America in late 1958, a trip that shifted his practice in response to American abstraction. It is possible to imagine the green brocade curtain that hangs behind Bellini’s Madonna and Child translated into the top-left block of McCahon’s work, its texture brought out in colours of ash, charcoal and golden ochre. The soft modulating of light and dark in the lower left block – palpable, fleshy and warm in meaty pink and smudgy brown tones beneath a sky-blue triangle – derives from the marbled drapery seen in the cuff of the Madonna’s robe, and the red marble parapet. It also alludes to the suffering that will ensue for the Christ Child. “Here in the red marbling, Christ’s blood becomes a sunset, with the white light of a sunlit rainstorm below. Within the ‘sunset’, Colin uses the ‘crescent moon’ wound symbol that Bellini used when portraying the dead Christ,” William McCahon commented of The First Bellini Madonna (Second Version).² Dominating most of the right-hand side of the painting is the velvety black that would become so familiar in McCahon’s later religious works – the unknowable, the void, God. The divisions between blocks and diagonals in The First Bellini Madonna (Second Version) are not so much defined by colour, but by McCahon exploiting line and light to section the pictorial plane. Light is symbolic, of course, both for Bellini and McCahon. Bellini’s use of light, in particular the shadowing behind the Madonna’s head and shoulders, places the figures in our world, suggesting the earthly reality of this divine vision. This shadow must be cast from a light source to the front and right of the figures, that’s to say from outside the frame, where we, the viewers, exist. The same light that illuminates them illuminates us, binding secular and divine. For McCahon, who explored and grappled with questions of faith and doubt throughout his life and practice, imagery of darkness and light in the Christian tradition was deeply significant and often employed. The Bellini Madonna became geometric abstractions into which he poured his broader message. In her essay from the publication for the exhibition A Question of Faith, Stedelijk Museum curator Marja Bloem describes how, in deciding which work to select for the first European retrospective of Colin McCahon and how to present his practice, “…it became apparent that landscape and religion or, more accurately, the spiritual – but also humanist – message conveyed by the language of the Christian Bible, are constant factors in his life and work.” McCahon’s relationship with Christianity was complex and multifaceted.. McCahon remained, in the words of his son William, a “homeless Christian”. As an exhibition, A Question of Faith focused on the artist's ongoing spiritual quest, demonstrating how McCahon explored questions of faith, doubt, hope, and eventually despair, in his practice. While visual clues could be ambiguous, there were always signs for the spiritually cognisant. However, even in the paintings offering more obvious clues, McCahon’s audience didn’t seem to understand his paintings as vehicles for spiritual thought, a foundational theme of his practice. “No one seems to know what I’m on about, it amazes me, no one seems to know that I’m painting Christ,”³ McCahon told an interviewer in 1980. Painted in 1961, The First Bellini Madonna (Second Version) comes shortly after McCahon’s first Gate series, a body of work that contended with the formal challenges and opportunities abstraction offered. The series reflected the artist’s meditations on the world around him and the obstacles to human progress and happiness he saw as posed by the nuclear threat of the time. McCahon described the paintings as a "way through" for humanity, presenting an abstract discourse through which to critique and construct contemporary culture. Gate 15 (1961) and another work from the same year, Here I Give Thanks to Mondrian, show strong compositional similarities with The First Bellini Madonna (Second Version), including geometric blocks, diagonal shifts, enhanced spatial dynamics and triangular corners. Here I Give Thanks to Mondrian sees McCahon paraphrasing Mondrian’s geometric shapes but with softened portions and angularity, and a muted tonal palette. McCahon has added painterly texture, the handwritten dedication in his own distinctive script, and the blended outlines seen in the first Gate series. McCahon deeply admired the abstract painter Piet Mondrian and believed that the artist had achieved paintings that “beat like, and with, a human heart.” In her book The Spirit of Colin McCahon, which focuses on the religious dimension of his art, author Zoe Alderton contends that “…Mondrian inspired McCahon to structure his works in a way that would give them inner life.” Spirituality and the abstract may not be the odd bedfellows first glance would have them be. Wassily Kandinsky, like other artists at the end of the 19th century, saw art as a new religion. In his 1912 essay “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”, Kandinsky equated representational art with materialism. He saw abstraction as a language that was not only capable of expressing deeper truth but also of communicating it to all five senses we possess. Indeed, in the 1986 exhibition The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890–1985, American curator Maurice Tuchman asserted that the “genesis and development of abstract art were inextricably tied to spiritual ideas current in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.” Known as a radical abstractionist, Mondrian is also regarded as a spiritual painter, and many writers have explored mystical content in abstraction, seeing grids as spiritual thresholds. McCahon grappled with Mondrian, commenting, “Mondrian, it seemed to me, came up in this century as a great barrier – the painting to END all painting. As a painter, how do you get around either a Michelangelo or a Mondrian? It seems that the only way is not more ‘masking tape’ but more involvement in the human situation.” This shift from perfection to connection defined McCahon’s practice. Like Mondrian, his desire to express a spiritual essence to the viewer through his work, and communicate the universal questions and concerns of humanity, led to a simplification of composition in which line, shape and colour are significant. In this sense, The First Bellini Madonna (Second Version) is a distillation of Bellini’s Christian symbolism and an exploration of how meaning can be communicated with sparse means. Both traditionalist and radical innovator, McCahon dared to ask humanity’s big questions, those of doubt and of faith, of hope and despair, with simple form. The First Bellini Madonna (Second Version) is a remarkable work, offering substance and engagement with spiritual matters without the easy handrails offered by the figures, narratives and texts of McCahon’s career output. 1 Gordon H. Brown, Colin McCahon: Artist (Wellington, NZ: A. H. and A. W. Reed, 1984), 35. 2 William McCahon, “The First Bellini Madonna (Second Version),” (unpublished essay, January 2002) as quoted in Marja Bloem and Martin Browne, Colin McCahon: A Question of Faith (Nelson, NZ and Amsterdam, Netherlands: Craig Potton Publishing and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2002), np. 3 Ibid., 50. 4 Carel Blotkamp, Mondrian: The Art of Destruction (London, UK: Reaktion Books, 2001), np.
Colin McCahon Caltex 1965 acrylic on paper signed Colin McCahon and dated '65 in ink lower right 255 x 405mm PROVENANCE Private collection, Christchurch. Acquired privately, 1990. Colin McCahon – Caltex Essay by CHRISTIE SIMPSON In 1965, Colin McCahon completed a small suite of preparatory studies for a mural designed to embellish the foyer of the Caltex building in Auckland, TÄmaki Makaurau. In McCahon’s well used palette of black, reddish brown and white, the series of preparatory paintings consist of the word CALTEX penned in koru-like script. McCahon gives the company name a very organic and almost delicate treatment - a contrast to the company’s actual logo at that time, which consisted of a bright red star and graphic circle emblazoned with CALTEX in contrasting black. The Caltex mural did not end up going ahead; this is a series of studies for a work that, intriguingly, does not exist. Widely recognised as one of Aotearoa’s most successful painters, McCahon covered many themes and styles over his career, which spanned over forty years. He experimented with both figurative and abstract paintings and explored a variety of subject matter including landscapes, figures and religious iconography. Known to be influenced by posters and sign writing, in the 1950s McCahon began to include text in his paintings - seen in works such as Let us possess one world (1955).¹ The Caltex mural was therefore a fitting choice for the artist. While at this point in the 1960s, McCahon had been creating word paintings for some years. Caltex harks back to his earlier carefully painted cubism-like lettering from the 1950s. The Caltex series also appears to be the first time that McCahon used the MÄori symbol of the koru within his lettering, although he would continue this idea in works such as Koru 1, 2, 3 (1965). While perhaps an arbitrary choice, given the subject matter and branding of the company, this use of the koru foreshadows the way MÄori motifs would go on to be incorporated into corporate branding in Aotearoa, such as the New Zealand Film Commission logo designed by Gordon Walters in 1979.² McCahon’s word paintings explore themes very clearly through their use of text, but they are also a visual exploration of shape and form. In Caltex, the letters become visually pleasing curved arrows and spirals, neatly butting up against each other. The work is harmoniously balanced, with the slight reddish brown used in the “T” letter repeated in the small, white-bordered triangular form on the lower right. This triangular shape also brings to mind McCahon’s large Waterfall series painted the year prior, which consisted of a bold band of white arcing across a dark background and disappearing off the opposite lower edge of the work. Again, there is a similarity to the Caltex series, as all the studies contain at least one letter that appears to drip off the edge of the paper. McCahon’s use of words and letters as both image and as text was a radical exploration for painting in the 1950s and 60s. Sometimes one or two words, sometimes paragraphs of text - these were works that were not always well received by the public. “By combining visual and verbal elements, McCahon had begun to ask the viewer to consider his works both in a literary sense and for their visual effectiveness, pushing the possibilities of the meaning of written words into the structure of the work.”³ This pushing of possibilities is what made McCahon such a legendary painter: he was unafraid to try something new. In this case, his inquisitiveness stretched to transforming a corporate brand into a large abstract mural. 1 http://www.mccahon.co.nz/ cm001410 2 https://www.aucklandartgallery. com/whats-on/exhibition/gordon-walters-prints-design?q=%2Fwhats-on%2Fexhibition%2Fgordon-walters-prints-design 3 Gow Langsford 2013 Spring Catalogue: https://issuu.com/ gowlangsfordgallery/docs/spring_ catalogue_online
Colin McCahon Jump E4 1973 acrylic on jute on canvas signed C. McC., dated 73. and inscribed JUMP/(E.4) in brushpoint lower edge 910 x 442mm PROVENANCE Collection of Judith Gifford, Christchurch. Acquired from Brooke/Gifford Gallery, 1975. EXHIBITIONS Jumps and Comets: Related Events in My World, Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland, 27 May - 7 June 1974. NOTE Colin McCahon Online Catalogue (www.mccahon.co.nz) number: CM001053. Colin McCahon – Jump E4 Essay by NEIL TALBOT In 1974, Barry Lett Galleries presented an exhibition of paintings by Colin McCahon titled Jumps and Comets: Related Events in My World. Many of the works in the show were McCahon’s Jump paintings, a thematically linked series of works that shared common traits: stark columns of black paint, dotted lines against mottled backgrounds suggestive of sky, and the word ‘jump’ painted onto the surface. These works were inspired by McCahon’s observations of the gannet breeding colony at Otakamiro Point, the clifftop separating Muriwai Beach and Maukatia (MÄori Bay) west of TÄmaki Makaurau. This coastline is subject to wild weather; strong winds incessantly buffet the cliffs that loom above the seething ocean. In such conditions, fledgling gannets make their first attempts at flight, leaping perilously and stretching their wings. This ‘leap of faith’ is the thematic substance of the Jump paintings. In this series, one can interpret psychological motifs of overcoming fear and navigating internal responses to danger and risk; the perilous jump of the young gannets a metaphor for human experiences of adversity. This isn’t unique to the Jump paintings; McCahon’s work often engaged with complex aspects of the human condition. Deep questions about the nature of existence, undercurrents of the psyche, and spiritual paradox appear everywhere, as if the very water he swam in. Nevertheless, his Jump paintings remain highly sought after, their quality appreciable. Jump E4 is a particular standout from this widely-admired series. The work possesses elements observable throughout: the monolithic black rectangle, which one could interpret as a sheer cliff face, the perforated diagonal line, perhaps representative of a terrifying yet exhilarating flight trajectory, and the word ‘JUMP’ at the bottom of the picture plane. In black, white and grey, its palette is elemental, conveying stark gravitas. Subjective interpretation might lead a viewer to sense the artist urging them to shake off their fears and attempt a kind of psychological flight, unencumbered and free. In sum, Jump E4 possesses all of the distinct qualities that have made McCahon such an enduring force: painterly restraint, visual poetic, and purpose of vision. At the time Jumps and Comets: Related Events in My World showed, Barry Lett Galleries was under the directorship of Rodney Kirk-Smith and Kim Wright. In 1975, Barbara Brooke and Judith Gifford established Brooke/Gifford Gallery in a large space in 112 Manchester Street, Christchurch. The site was cluttered with old motorbikes leaking oil and a floor splattered with years of paint. Brooke and Gifford were undaunted, and transformed the space into an environment for the exhibition of contemporary New Zealand art. Impressed by the ambition and determination of the Christchurch pair, Kirk-Smith and Wright sent them a consignment of important artworks as a gesture of support. These works were then included in one of Brooke/Gifford’s earliest shows. Jump E4 was one of the works consigned. It caught the attention of Gifford, no doubt in part because of the particular qualities which make it such a strong painting. Gifford purchased the work, with Brooke encouraging the acquisition, referring to the painting as ‘standout work’. A member of Gifford’s family spoke of the fact that McCahon painted his Jump paintings, including Jump E4, in a small house on a hill at Muriwai Beach. After Judith Gifford purchased the work, she and her husband hung it in a similarly modest home nestled into a hill in Clifton Spur, overlooking Sumner Beach – echoing the environment it was created in. It remained there for 46 years. The painting has kept Gifford and her family captivated, remaining in their collection until now – an enduring testament to the leap of faith in starting the Brooke/Gifford Gallery.
Colin McCahon Jets Flying South Over Oaia Island 1973 charcoal on paper signed Colin McCahon, dated Easter '73 and inscribed Jets flying South over Oaia Island in charcoal and graphite upper edge 222 x 294mm PROVENANCE Private collection, Auckland. Acquired privately; Collection of Jim and Mary Barr, Wellington. Gifted by the Lachmann's; Collection of Hans and Martha Lachmann, Wellington. EXHIBITIONS 2007 Reboot: The Jim Barr and Mary Barr Collection, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Christchurch, 17 March - 1 July 2007. LITERATURE Peter Simpson, Colin McCahon: Is This the Promised Land? Vol. 2 1960-1987 (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2020), 204. (cited only). NOTE Colin McCahon Online Catalogue (www.mccahon.co.nz) number: CM000972
Colin McCahon Manukau 2 1954 watercolour and gouache on paper signed McCahon, dated Jan 54 and inscribed Manukau 2 in brushpoint lower left 534 x 730mm PROVENANCE Private collection, Auckland. EXHIBITIONS The Group Show, Durham Street Art Gallery, Christchurch, 2 - 17 November 1954. LITERATURE Peter Simpson, Colin McCahon: The Titirangi Years, 1953-1959 (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2008), 84; Marja Bloem and Martin Browne, Colin McCahon: A Question of Faith (Nelson: Craig Potton, 2002), 180.
COLIN McCAHON (1919 – 1987, New Zealand) TITIRANGI, 1957 oil on cardboard 55.0 x 75.5 cm signed and dated lower left: McCahon / JULY ’57 inscribed with title upper left: TITIRANGI. PROVENANCE Rodney Kirk Smith, Auckland, New Zealand Ray Hughes, Sydney, acquired from the above c.1987 Estate of Ray Hughes, Sydney EXHIBITED probably: The Group Show, Durham Street Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand, 12 – 27 October 1957 probably: Recent Paintings, Dunedin Public Library, Dunedin, New Zealand, 1 – 18 April 1958 Eight New Zealand Painters III, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, October – November 1959, cat. 19 LITERATURE Bloem, M., and Browne, M., Colin McCahon A Question of Faith, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Craig Potton Publishing, 2002, pp. 254 – 255 Simpson, P., Colin McCahon There is Only One Direction 1919 – 1959, Auckland University Press, Auckland, New Zealand, 2019, pp. 324, 325 Colin McCahon Online Catalogue, ref. cm001390 [http://www.mccahon.co.nz/cm001390] (accessed 10/03/20) ESSAY Colin McCahon clearly valued Titirangi, 1957 highly since he chose it as one of the five works to represent his career to date (a kind of mini-retrospective) in the exhibition Eight New Zealand Painters III at Auckland City Art Gallery in 1959. It was the most recent work in his selection, the others dating from 1946, 1947, 1950 and 1955. Though provided with a place name as title, it was the most abstract of the works selected and represented his steady move towards abstraction throughout the 1950s. If ‘Titirangi’ is entered into the search engine of the Colin McCahon Online catalogue (www.mccahon.co.nz) around 40 works come up, ranging in date from 1953 through to 1959 – precisely the period in which McCahon and his family lived in the bush suburb of Titirangi on the hilly western outskirts of Auckland City. The bare title Titirangi is shared with five other works, all from the period 1956 – 57. They are a ‘family’ cluster of works, other connected clusters from the same period being ‘Kauri’, ‘Manukau’ and ‘French Bay’. Most of the works with ‘Titirangi’ in their titles are studies of the bush environment – predominantly regenerating kauri, a massive ancient coniferous tree, but also including other species such as kahikatea (white pine) and the palm-like nikau – which surrounded the McCahons’ dwelling in French Bay, Titirangi. The bush was a subject of endless fascination for McCahon as a painter, ranging from depictions of individual trees or groups of trees – Kauri Trees, Titirangi, 1955 – 57 (Private collection)1 – to generalised studies of the bush as a mass of vegetation – Titirangi, 1956 – 57 (collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki).2 These works are arrayed along a spectrum ranging from simple realism at one end to complete abstraction at the other. Broadly speaking, though there are exceptions, as time passed the approach became increasingly abstract, with the present work close to the non-representational end of the scale. Others with a similar degree of abstraction included Red Titirangi, 1957 (private collection, Auckland)3, painted in the same month of July 1957. Of these works McCahon commented: ‘In 1957 too, a great change in attitude to the Titirangi landscape … I came to grips with the kauri and turned him in all his splendour into a symbol’.4 Titirangi is dominated by a roughly diagonal grid which divides the surface of the picture into large diamond-shaped blocks. Such grids were part of McCahon’s Cubist-inspired efforts to unify a picture while escaping traditional perspective. Running counter to this pattern are concave and convex shapes at upper left and right – which might be read as clouds or the profiles of kauri trees – and a horizontal and vertical form at lower right, constituting a rough square which might be read as a building. Within these broader outlines are numerous small lozenges of colour typical of works of this period – white, pink, ochre, brown, black – and other expressive marks. Painted with great energy and dynamism, the picture references sky, clouds, buildings, a tree line and other such details, however the overall effect is of an abstract painting which relates to the specifics of a particular locality but subsumes these within a fundamentally non-representational impression. 1. Colin McCahon Online catalogue [www.mccahon.co.nz], cat. cm000407 2. Colin McCahon Online catalogue [www.mccahon.co.nz], cat. cm001386 3. Colin McCahon Online catalogue [www.mccahon.co.nz], cat. cm001580 4. McCahon, C., quoted in Colin McCahon: A Survey Exhibition, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, 1972, p. 24 PETER SIMPSON
COLIN MCCAHON (1919 - 1987) Help, Necessary Protection, charcoal on paper, Signed, inscribed help & small bird flys in for heavens Protection at Muriwai I reach for my crayon and pick up a dead insect & dated 1973, 22.5 x 30cm
COLIN MCCAHON, (New Zealand 1919 - 87), 15 Drawings - December '51 to May '52, Lithographic leaves, published by the Hocken Library, 1976 , Signed, inscribed For Charles Brasch from Colin McCahon 1952 on plate
COLIN McCAHON (1919-1987, New Zealand), Fog and Sea, Muriwai 1973 29.5 x 22.5 cm signed and dated lower right: Colin McCahon '73 inscribed lower centre: Fog + Sea Muriwai pencil on paper
Puketutu Manukau, 1957, lithographs on paper, edition: of 100, one inscribed in the plate l.l.c. 'Puketutu from my boat '57 ed. 100, one signed and dated in the plate l.r.c. 'C McC, '57' (4)
COLIN McCAHON, (1919 – 1987, New Zealand), PAINTING, 1956, oil on cardboard SIGNED: signed and dated upper right: McCahon. / June ’56. inscribed verso in pencil: 58 Shelly Beach Rd inscribed verso in brushpoint: Colin McCahon / Art Gallery / Auckland / Painting June ‘ 56 / oil / N.F.S. / Insurance 20 gns DIMENSIONS: 76.0 x 55.0 cm PROVENANCE: Harrods, London, abandoned storage auction Private collection, Queensland, acquired from the above c.1980 EXHIBITED: Possibly: The Group Show, 1956, The Art Gallery Durham Street, Christchurch, New Zealand, 3 November – 18 November 1956, cat. 98 (nfs) or 102 (nfs) ESSAY: The recent discovery and identification of this painting adds another unique and challenging ‘abstract’ work from 1956 to Colin McCahon’s incredible achievement. Generally regarded as a ‘blank’ year in the artist’s career where drawing dominated, and a year given little attention from curators and writers, perhaps 1956 represented a critical point of change and cross-roads for the artist. Later recalling his art from 1956 and 1957 McCahon said ‘I see I was right now in thinking the previous year [1956] as one of little painting and lots of drawing. I came to grips with the kauri and turned him in all his splendour into a symbol.’1 By early 1954, McCahon, then living in Auckland, had become a permanent member of the staff at the Auckland City Art Gallery, involved in curating exhibitions, writing catalogues and teaching. In September 1954 he was involved in curating Object and Image, an exhibition of non-representational painting which included his abstracted Kauri paintings. In 1954 McCahon produced his first ‘word’ paintings which were to culminate in the Elias series of 1959. In another direction, he was sourcing the reduced shapes for his Gate series to follow in the early 1960s, the First Bellini Madonna painting and references to Mondrian. Yet the consistent and more even backdrop at this time comprised the semi-abstracted, faceted ‘cubist’ landscapes of Titirangi and French Bay and the Kauri subjects. Assured and powerful in their own right these led towards minimal abstraction. ‘In late 1955 and 1956, the multiple images overlap one another in a single frame in the various paintings of French Bay, Titirangi…In these, time, weather and light are continually shifting. Views across the water cannot simply be faceted like the earlier hill landscapes. Rather, McCahon makes prominent vertical and horizontal divisions. The motifs are beach, sea, sky, a strip of land, and, often little rectangles on the sea which must be boats. The blue areas are sometimes sea, sometimes sky, sometimes ambiguously, they could be either…’2 Painting, 1956 belongs to a small group of abstract compositions painted that year. Related works, Composition from April 1956, Moss from May 1956, [Abstract] from August – September 1956, and other French Bay and Kauri subjects from this year, were all painted on the same sized cardboard supports. The deciphering of Painting, 1956 with its floating shapes, strong linear divisions and flash of red is not straight forward. The artist is pushing firmly in a new direction. ‘When Colin abstracts, he leaves a sense of the things he has decided to disregard. They make their absence felt. He is not interested in doing things with shapes, colours and textures simply for their own sakes’.3 1. McCahon quoted in Colin McCahon / a survey exhibition, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, 1972, exhibition catalogue, p. 24 2. Green, T., ‘McCahon and the Modern’ in Colin McCahon, Gates and Journeys, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, 1988, p. 31 3. Introduction by R. N. O’Reilly in Colin McCahon / a survey exhibition, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, 1972, exhibition catalogue, pp. 13 – 14 CHRIS DEUTSCHER
Colin McCahon (New Zealand, 1919-1987) Landscape Multiple No. 4, 1968 sawdust, synthetic polymer paint on hardboard, signed, titled and dated verso 'Colin McCahon 'Landscape multiple/ May June '68/ No. 4 of a series of 12' There were twelve works in this series. Although called 'Multiples' each work was unique
Colin McCahon (New Zealand, 1919-1987) Night Fishing, French Bay Series 2 cardboard relief print, edition 7, signed and titled l.r.c. 'Colin McCahon, Night Fishing, French Bay, Series 2, Ed 7' Private Collection label verso
COLIN McCAHON, (1919 - 1987, New Zealand), GANNETS LEAVING MURIWAI, c.1976 - 1978, synthetic polymer paint on unstretched canvas SIGNED: inscribed upper right: GANNETS LEAVING MURIWAI further inscribed: he who makes his - angels winds, - and his minister - a fiery flame. PROVENANCE: Gordon H. Brown, New Zealand, - gift from the artist Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney Private collection, Sydney DIMENSIONS: 79.5 - 122.0 cm LITERATURE: Colin McCahon Online Catalogue, www.mccahon.co.nz, ref. cm000292 ESSAY: One of the great masters of twentieth century painting, Colin McCahon today remains widely revered for his prophetic vision which imbued the vernacular with universal significance to powerfully interrogate sacred questions of faith and doubt, life and death, meaning and despair. Yet while McCahon invariably drew inspiration from the most mundane objects and events in his spiritual quest, the original sources for his meditations are rarely self-evident from the works themselves. Rather it is the existential situation that emerges from the artist’s response to this impetus – his reflection distilled through the alchemy of time, memory and recollection – that is immortalised in the sublime incarnations constituting his remarkable legacy. As with the loosely connected group of works comprising McCahon’s ‘Necessary Protection’ series from the early seventies, the present two compositions Dance of the Gannets, 1976-78 and Gannets Leaving Muriwai, 1976 – 78 were inspired by the rugged coastal landscape surrounding his hilltop studio at Muriwai, north-west of Auckland. Describing the area as ‘shockingly beautiful…wild… and empty and utterly beautiful’1, McCahon was acutely aware of the fragility of the ecosystem here and hence, its very real need for protection; as he despaired, ‘On the lower cliffs there are the nests of Fairy Terns [McCahon later corrected himself, for the birds are gannets]. In the early summer the young are taught how to fly and swim and to gather their food. This goes on in spite of our intrusions, the cliff top parties, the broken bottles, the paper and plastic everywhere…’2 And later, ‘I am not painting protest pictures, I am painting about what is still there and what I can see before the sky turns black with soot and the sea becomes a slowly heaving rubbish tip. I am painting what we have got now and will never get again.’3 Given McCahon’s longstanding empathy for Maori culture and traditions, particularly in his affinity for and personification of the land, it is perhaps not surprising that he should possess such a deep love for this area which is also renowned as ‘the coast along which the Maori souls pass over on their way from life to death – to Te Reinga (Spirits Bay) carrying their fronds and branches…’4 Accordingly, if the ‘Necessary Protection’ series was initially conceived to highlight society’s responsibility to protect the Muriwai environment, over time McCahon’s iconography evolved to also evoke deeper spiritual implications – namely the difficulty of embracing that leap of faith required to accept spiritual nurture and interaction with God, the birds here symbolising human souls. Such connotations are perhaps most poignantly explored in the monumental Walk (Beach Walk, series C), 1973 - a closely related work which recalls the spirit of McCahon’s deceased friend and poet James Baxter, whom he joins in an imagined walk along Muriwai beach, the ‘Christian’ walk here paralleling the Maori ‘walk’. In a similar vein, the strong T structure dominating many Muriwai compositions (including Gannets Leaving Muriwai) derives from the physical reality of the landscape - the dark landforms are immediately recognisable as the cliffs near Otakamiro Point, while the space between is the chasm which separates near-shore rock that is Motutara Island where the gannets nest – but more importantly, also symbolises the Tau or Old Testament cross commonly associated with Moses and his time in the wilderness. Similarly, the Roman numeral I featured in Dance of the Gannets may be understood as signifying the sky, falling light and enlightened land.5 Arguably elucidating the artist’s intentions most directly however, are the scripture texts reproduced here which link the two works with the crowning achievements of McCahon’s final years. Derived from Hebrews 1:7 (in turn quoted from Psalm 104:4), the line of Gannets Leaving Muriwai (‘He who makes his angels winds, and his ministers a fiery flame’) significantly also appears in the lower right hand corner of A Painting for Uncle Frank, 1980 – a work dedicated to the memory of the itinerant, uncompromising preacher who was the uncle of the artist’s friend Toss Woollaston, and under whose influence Woollaston and McCahon ‘made a sort of vow together to devote ourselves to God.’6 The verse, together with the line from Hebrews 1:8 included in Dance of the Gannets (‘Thy throne O God is, for ever and ever, and the sceptre of justice is the sceptre of His Kingdom’), similarly features in the epic three-paneled work Paul to the Hebrews, 1980 – arguably one of McCahon’s most compelling and sophisticated investigations of the sacred themes of faith and doubt, meaning and despair, life and death. Considered together, the verses reproduced in the two Muriwai paintings on offer illuminate Paul’s endeavour to distinguish for the Hebrew recipients of the Letter the difference between the angels of Old Testament times and Jesus – to demonstrate that the latter was not merely another angel or prophet, but rather the Son of God chosen above all prophets who had gone before. More generally, the text alludes to His indulgence and everlasting protection in an essentially positive way, and as such, Dance of the Gannets and Gannets Leaving Muriwai are noteworthy within the closing chapter of McCahon’s oeuvre for the vestiges of hope they still contain. Indeed, within only a couple of years of these two works being executed, the mood of McCahon’s practice would change forever. Unequivocally bleak, dark and pessimistic, his final works – admonishments culminating in the so-called last painting I considered all the acts of oppression, 1980-82 – came to reflect rather the artist’s increasingly dispirited personal state and raging battle with mental illness, lamenting the futility of all human endeavour and suggesting a total collapse of faith in faith itself. Yet therein perhaps lies the enduring power, universality and poignant beauty of McCahon’s prophetic vision; the doubts and frailties that assail so many individuals constantly plagued him too. As one author astutely observes of his legacy, ‘…it is the existential situation that prevails… The viewer is asked to stand with the artist, in a situation where each person must decide the issue in their own way… It is a confession that, while it affects a solitary person, has become externalised and addressed to all. It is art used to give the conflict of faith and doubt coherence of thought, effort and expression in its most positive form...’7 1. McCahon, C., in his statement for An exhibition of paintings by Colin McCahon, Dawsons Limited Exhibition Gallery, Dunedin, 1971, unpaginated 2. ibid. 3. McCahon, C., cited in Brown, G., Colin McCahon: Artist, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1984, p. 166 4. McCahon, C., op.cit., 1971 5. The iconography of the ‘T’ and ‘I’ symbols was elucidated by Colin McCahon in his introduction to the catalogue accompanying the first exhibition of the ‘Necessary Protection’ series at Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland, November 1971 6. McCahon, C., cited in Bail, M., ‘I Am’ in Bloem, M., & Browne, M., Colin McCahon: A Question of Faith, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam & Craig Potton Publishing, New Zealand, 2002, p. 41 7. Brown, op.cit., 1984, pp. 117 – 118 VERONICA ANGELATOS
COLIN McCAHON, (1919 - 1987, New Zealand), DANCE OF THE GANNETS, c.1976 - 1978, synthetic polymer paint on unstretched canvas SIGNED: inscribed lower centre right: DANCE OF THE GANNETS further inscribed: [illeg.]hy throne - God is for - ever and ever, and the /sceptre of justice is the - sceptre of His Kingdom DIMENSIONS: 79.5 - 122.0 cm PROVENANCE: Gordon H. Brown, New Zealand, - gift from the artist Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney Private collection, Sydney LITERATURE: Colin McCahon Online Catalogue, www.mccahon.co.nz, ref. cm000291 ESSAY: One of the great masters of twentieth century painting, Colin McCahon today remains widely revered for his prophetic vision which imbued the vernacular with universal significance to powerfully interrogate sacred questions of faith and doubt, life and death, meaning and despair. Yet while McCahon invariably drew inspiration from the most mundane objects and events in his spiritual quest, the original sources for his meditations are rarely self-evident from the works themselves. Rather it is the existential situation that emerges from the artist’s response to this impetus – his reflection distilled through the alchemy of time, memory and recollection – that is immortalised in the sublime incarnations constituting his remarkable legacy. As with the loosely connected group of works comprising McCahon’s ‘Necessary Protection’ series from the early seventies, the present two compositions Dance of the Gannets, 1976-78 and Gannets Leaving Muriwai, 1976 – 78 were inspired by the rugged coastal landscape surrounding his hilltop studio at Muriwai, north-west of Auckland. Describing the area as ‘shockingly beautiful…wild… and empty and utterly beautiful’1, McCahon was acutely aware of the fragility of the ecosystem here and hence, its very real need for protection; as he despaired, ‘On the lower cliffs there are the nests of Fairy Terns [McCahon later corrected himself, for the birds are gannets]. In the early summer the young are taught how to fly and swim and to gather their food. This goes on in spite of our intrusions, the cliff top parties, the broken bottles, the paper and plastic everywhere…’2 And later, ‘I am not painting protest pictures, I am painting about what is still there and what I can see before the sky turns black with soot and the sea becomes a slowly heaving rubbish tip. I am painting what we have got now and will never get again.’3 Given McCahon’s longstanding empathy for Maori culture and traditions, particularly in his affinity for and personification of the land, it is perhaps not surprising that he should possess such a deep love for this area which is also renowned as ‘the coast along which the Maori souls pass over on their way from life to death – to Te Reinga (Spirits Bay) carrying their fronds and branches…’4 Accordingly, if the ‘Necessary Protection’ series was initially conceived to highlight society’s responsibility to protect the Muriwai environment, over time McCahon’s iconography evolved to also evoke deeper spiritual implications – namely the difficulty of embracing that leap of faith required to accept spiritual nurture and interaction with God, the birds here symbolising human souls. Such connotations are perhaps most poignantly explored in the monumental Walk (Beach Walk, series C), 1973 - a closely related work which recalls the spirit of McCahon’s deceased friend and poet James Baxter, whom he joins in an imagined walk along Muriwai beach, the ‘Christian’ walk here paralleling the Maori ‘walk’. In a similar vein, the strong T structure dominating many Muriwai compositions (including Gannets Leaving Muriwai) derives from the physical reality of the landscape - the dark landforms are immediately recognisable as the cliffs near Otakamiro Point, while the space between is the chasm which separates near-shore rock that is Motutara Island where the gannets nest – but more importantly, also symbolises the Tau or Old Testament cross commonly associated with Moses and his time in the wilderness. Similarly, the Roman numeral I featured in Dance of the Gannets may be understood as signifying the sky, falling light and enlightened land.5 Arguably elucidating the artist’s intentions most directly however, are the scripture texts reproduced here which link the two works with the crowning achievements of McCahon’s final years. Derived from Hebrews 1:7 (in turn quoted from Psalm 104:4), the line of Gannets Leaving Muriwai (‘He who makes his angels winds, and his ministers a fiery flame’) significantly also appears in the lower right hand corner of A Painting for Uncle Frank, 1980 – a work dedicated to the memory of the itinerant, uncompromising preacher who was the uncle of the artist’s friend Toss Woollaston, and under whose influence Woollaston and McCahon ‘made a sort of vow together to devote ourselves to God.’6 The verse, together with the line from Hebrews 1:8 included in Dance of the Gannets (‘Thy throne O God is, for ever and ever, and the sceptre of justice is the sceptre of His Kingdom’), similarly features in the epic three-paneled work Paul to the Hebrews, 1980 – arguably one of McCahon’s most compelling and sophisticated investigations of the sacred themes of faith and doubt, meaning and despair, life and death. Considered together, the verses reproduced in the two Muriwai paintings on offer illuminate Paul’s endeavour to distinguish for the Hebrew recipients of the Letter the difference between the angels of Old Testament times and Jesus – to demonstrate that the latter was not merely another angel or prophet, but rather the Son of God chosen above all prophets who had gone before. More generally, the text alludes to His indulgence and everlasting protection in an essentially positive way, and as such, Dance of the Gannets and Gannets Leaving Muriwai are noteworthy within the closing chapter of McCahon’s oeuvre for the vestiges of hope they still contain. Indeed, within only a couple of years of these two works being executed, the mood of McCahon’s practice would change forever. Unequivocally bleak, dark and pessimistic, his final works – admonishments culminating in the so-called last painting I considered all the acts of oppression, 1980-82 – came to reflect rather the artist’s increasingly dispirited personal state and raging battle with mental illness, lamenting the futility of all human endeavour and suggesting a total collapse of faith in faith itself. Yet therein perhaps lies the enduring power, universality and poignant beauty of McCahon’s prophetic vision; the doubts and frailties that assail so many individuals constantly plagued him too. As one author astutely observes of his legacy, ‘…it is the existential situation that prevails… The viewer is asked to stand with the artist, in a situation where each person must decide the issue in their own way… It is a confession that, while it affects a solitary person, has become externalised and addressed to all. It is art used to give the conflict of faith and doubt coherence of thought, effort and expression in its most positive form...’7 1. McCahon, C., in his statement for An exhibition of paintings by Colin McCahon, Dawsons Limited Exhibition Gallery, Dunedin, 1971, unpaginated 2. ibid. 3. McCahon, C., cited in Brown, G., Colin McCahon: Artist, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1984, p. 166 4. McCahon, C., op.cit., 1971 5. The iconography of the ‘T’ and ‘I’ symbols was elucidated by Colin McCahon in his introduction to the catalogue accompanying the first exhibition of the ‘Necessary Protection’ series at Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland, November 1971 6. McCahon, C., cited in Bail, M., ‘I Am’ in Bloem, M., & Browne, M., Colin McCahon: A Question of Faith, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam & Craig Potton Publishing, New Zealand, 2002, p. 41 7. Brown, op.cit., 1984, pp. 117 – 118 VERONICA ANGELATOS
COLIN McCAHON, (1919 - 1987, New Zealand), PAUL TO HEBREWS, 1980, synthetic polymer paint on Steinbach paper SIGNED: 1. signed, dated and titled lower left: PAUL TO HEBREWS. C.McC. FEB. '80. 'Remember where you stand'- inscribed lower right: 1. 2. signed, dated and titled lower left: PAUL TO HEBREWS. C McC. FEB. '80. 'He who made his angels winds'- inscribed lower right: 2. 3. signed, dated and titled lower left: PAUL TO HEBREWS. C. McC. FEB. '80. By thee, Lord, were earth's foundations laid'- inscribed upper right: 3. DIMENSIONS: 73.0 x 109.5 cm each; 73.0 x 328.5 cm overall EXHIBITED: Colin McCahon: New Works, Peter Webb Galleries, Auckland, 18 February-7 March 1980, cat. 9, 10, 11 McCahon, CSA Gallery, Christchurch, 6-25 September 1980 Colin McCahon: A Question of Faith, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 30 August-10 November 2002 LITERATURE: Bloem, M., and Browne, M., Colin McCahon: A Question of Faith, Craig Potton Publishing & Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2002, pp. 146-147 (illus.) Brown, G. H., Colin McCahon: Artist, Reed, Wellington, 1984, pp. 152, 187 Colin McCahon Online Catalogue, www.mccahon.co.nz, ref. cm000905 PROVENANCE: Private collection, Wellington, New Zealand Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney Private collection, New South Wales ESSAY: '...The written word, most often quoted from the bible is... without apology used as a subject for painting... No one can dismiss these pictures in which the lettering is painted without missing the unity and power of the artist's whole work. This matter is... the one most people want to lay down rules about. But how do we lay down rules for this sort of painting? Part of a painter's work is to discover rules and... test them as he goes along, to see if they will work for him and for us... who shall say lettering shall not be big in a picture?'1 One of two biblical texts dominating the final period of McCahon's oeuvre, 'A Letter to the Hebrews' had first seriously occupied the artist in 1970, when a Wellington collector exhorted him to contemplate the text and the possibilities it might hold for a painting. However, it was not until 1979 that McCahon felt sufficiently confident in his knowledge of the Letter to be able to explore its potential on a significant scale. Particularly fascinated by the passages in which Paul, the Letter's reputed author, elucidates the nature of faith, McCahon first embarked upon the pair of images comprising The Testimony of Scripture: Hebrews II, 1979, posing the question 'and what is Faith?' and answering it thus, 'Faith gives substance to our hopes and makes us certain of Realities we do not see.' Similarly, in the large, closely related work on canvas, A Letter to Hebrews, 1979 (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington), McCahon delves into the historic nature of this testimony, considering the acts of faith among the Jews of the Old Testament including Abel, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, and observing that 'all these persons died in faith... They were not yet in possession of the things promised, but had seen them far away and had hailed them and confessed themselves... It is for faith that the men of old stand on record.' Elaborating upon these sacred themes of faith and doubt, meaning and despair, life and death, the present three-panelled work Paul to Hebrews, 1980 constitutes arguably one of the most compelling and sophisticated investigations of the series. With the texts reproduced here not following the Bible sequence but rather, specifically selected by McCahon to accentuate his purpose, indeed the work seems to gently reassure the viewer that only through conflict and affliction may our existence be truly enhanced and enlightened. Thus, while the first panel reveals the displeasure of a judgmental God, the remaining two
COLIN McCAHON (1919-1987) Truth from the King Country - Load Bearing Structures 9 1978 synthetic polymer paint on canvas on board 20.0 x 25.0 cm signed, dated and inscribed verso: TRUTH FROM THE KING COUNTRY/ LOAD BEARING STRUCTURES/ 9 COLIN Mc C ‘78/ ACRYLIC
COLIN McCAHON 1919 - 1987, New Zealand, NOUGHTS AND CROSSES, SERIES 2, NO. 2, 1976, synthetic polymer paint on Steinbach paper SIGNED: signed with initials, dated and inscribed lower left: II NOUGHTS & CROSSES 2. C. McC. '76. DIMENSIONS: 110.5 x 73.0 cm EXHIBITED: Colin McCahon: Paintings - Noughts and crosses, Rocks in the sky, On the road, Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland, 23 August - 3 September 1976, cat. 2 (as 'Noughts and Crosses (second set)') Colin McCahon: Necessary Protection: the catalogue of a travelling exhibition of paintings from Colin McCahon's various series from 1971 to 1976, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, 1-25 September 1977; Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North, 5-30 October 1977; Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, 8 November - 4 December 1977; Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, 14 December 1977 - 8 January 1978; Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui, 18 January - 12 February 1978; National Art Gallery, Wellington, 22 February - 19 March 1978; Hawkes Bay Art Gallery and Museum (Inc.), Napier, 29 March - 23 April 1978; Gisborne Museum and Art Centre, Gisborne, 3-28 May 1978; Waikato Art Museum, Hamilton, 12 July - 6 August 1978; cat. 21 (as 'Noughts & Crosses II 2') On loan to Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (label attached verso) LITERATURE: McCahon's 'Necessary Protection', Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, 1977, p. 42, cat. 21 (illus. p. [33]) Bloem, M., and Browne, M., Colin McCahon: A Question of Faith, Craig Potton Publishing & Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2002, p. 261 Colin McCahon Online Catalogue, www.mccahon.co.nz, ref. cm001171 PROVENANCE: Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington Private collection, New Zealand, acquired from the above in 1978 Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington Private collection, Brisbane, acquired from the above in 2001 One of the great masters of twentieth century painting, Colin McCahon is widely revered for his prophetic vision which imbues the vernacular with universal significance to powerfully interrogate sacred questions of faith and doubt, life and death, meaning and despair. Yet while McCahon invariably draws inspiration from the most mundane objects and events in his spiritual quest, the original sources for his meditations are rarely self-evident from the works themselves. Rather it is the existential situation that emerges from the artist's response to this impetus - his reflection distilled through the alchemy of time, memory and recollection - that is immortalised in the sublime incarnations constituting his remarkable legacy. As with several themes from this decade influenced by the minutiae of the artist's daily life at Muriwai, the inspiration for the Noughts and Crosses series came to McCahon while watching his daughter Victoria play games of noughts and crosses with her young son Tui. As Martin Browne elucidates '... In their discarded scraps of paper, McCahon discovered a rich metaphor for the universal "game" of life. For in life, as in noughts and crosses, each individual must play within a given set of rules, the choices made and chances taken determining what follows thereafter ... Accordingly, now the crosses represented both a positive and affirmative act and, through the metaphor of the Crucifixion, the promise of redemption. As well as the "x" traditionally marking the "cross" in the game, McCahon employs the shape of the Latin Cross - "T" - the Cross of Christ's Crucifixion. By contrast, the noughts here threaten the possibility of the abyss; a primordial void from which there is no hope of escape.'1 Exploiting the brutal intellectual and spiritual implications of this seemingly innocent children's game, McCahon thus embarked upon the acclaimed Noughts and Crosses series which, comprising fourteen paintings (another reference to the numerical symbology of the Stations of the Cross) is divided into two sets of seven known as 'the first set' and 'series 2'. While each of 'the first set' depicts two completed games and common to all but one is the victory of the crosses, in series two, the imagery is reduced to single games whose results become far more ambiguous. Now only the present work and no. 3 repeat the victory of the Latin Crosses that so distinguished the first series. Furthermore, although technically a 'win', the fact that two of the three black crosses in the work on offer are almost obfuscated within the dark background smoke from a fiery hell visibly portends the doubt and despair to follow. Indeed, in paintings no. 4 and 5, the results are inconclusive; in no. 6 the victory of the crosses is rendered with a line of black 'x's rather than the Latin Cross employed previously; while finally, in no. 7, the last painting of the series, the hope offered by the Latin Cross has been completely extinguished, the crosses here appearing in black against a black background while victory lies with the noughts. Despite such an ostensibly pessimistic finale, the Noughts and Crosses series remains compelling for the beauty, mystery and sophistication with which the artist transforms the everyday into the wonder of an authentic spiritual encounter. For, as with the best of McCahon's work, 'it is the existential situation that prevails ... The viewer is asked to stand with the artist, in a situation where each person must decide the issue in their own way ... It is art used to give the conflict of faith and doubt coherence of thought, effort and expression in its most positive form.'2 1. Bloem, M., and Browne, M., Colin McCahon: A Question of Faith, Craig Potton Publishing & Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2002, p. 226 2. Brown, G.H., Colin McCahon: Artist, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1984, pp. 117-118 VERONICA ANGELATOS
Colin McCahon 1919 - 1987, NIGHT FISHING, FRENCH BAY, 1957 cardboard relief print SIGNED: signed, dated and numbered lower left to lower centre: Colin McCahon. 1957 15/20 numbered lower left corner: 15 numbered verso, lower left corner: 15 edition: 15/20 DIMENSIONS: 20.0 x 12.5 cm (sheet) LITERATURE: Brown, G.H., Colin McCahon: Artist, A.H. and A.W. Reed Ltd, Wellington, New Zealand, 1984, p. 65 PROVENANCE: Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney Private collection, Sydney Thence by decent Private collection, Sydney RELATED WORKS: Other examples of this print are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (no. 8), and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington (no. 4)
Colin McCahon Seaweed on the Beach signed Colin McCahon, dated Feb - August '72 and inscribed Taitimu Tangi Muriwai, Seaweed on the Beach in brushpoint lower edge 730mm x 1112mm
Colin McCahon Kaipara Flat with a Blue Sky (1) signed McCahon, dated '71 and inscribed Kaipara Flat with a Blue Sky (1) in pencil upper right 1017mm x 670mm
Colin McCahon Waterfall 25 signed Colin McCahon, dated June July '64 and inscribed Waterfall, N.F.S. in ink verso centre; inscribed C56 in ball point and 25 in ink verso lower right, possible in another hand (Ikon Fine Arts code) 294mm x 197mm
Colin McCahon Waterfall oil on hardboard title inscribed, signed and dated December '64 verso. Original collection label and Moller's Gallery label affixed verso.
