COLIN MCCAHON
Undoubtedly one of the most important New Zealand artists of the 20th century, Colin McCahon’s centenary is being marked by a powerful, illuminating new exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.
One of New Zealand’s most important artists is honoured in a new exhibition.
“FAITH AND DOUBT DUEL IN HIS WORK.”
For Colin McCahon, joy was taking a brush of white paint and curving a line through the darkness. Indeed, he once wrote that “I only need black and white to say what I have to say … it is a matter of light and dark”.
Fortunately, his joy of art and illuminating dark truths and revelations was compelling and infectious. McCahon is broadly regarded as New Zealand’s most important artist of the 20th century. International critics now rank him with the likes of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. He has also been credited with helping to bring modernism to New Zealand in the mid-20th century.
McCahon would have turned 100 last year. His centenary was marked in a major exhibition in Auckland, while several books and a documentary are also in production. For Finn McCahon-Jones – Auckland painter, sculptor, curator, storyteller and the grandson of McCahon – the centenary was a chance to re-evalute his grandfather’s career.
“There are a lot of people who believe there are lessons to be learned from him – that he’s only been looked at from certain arthistorical concepts,” says McCahonJones. He believes the next step for his grandfather’s work is to “head overseas” and to be seen “within the context of the other masters who were working at the time. The respect for him overseas is growing”.
A SINGULAR VISION
McCahon’s talent is indeed being recognised overseas: particularly in a major new exhibition at the National Gallery Of Victoria. Colin McCahon: Letters And Numbers aims to capture the heart of McCahon’s singular vision, exploring his contribution to 20thcentury art via his use of painted text, religious ideas and the integration of international modernism to regional contexts. It hopes to examine and explain his ‘deeply personal’ visual language, which delves into such themes as the landscape, the environment, emotional and symbolic journeys, Christian and Māori spirituality, and of, course, the expressive potential of numbers and words. The exhibition includes all the works by McCahon in the NGV Collection. (Incidentally, McCahon’s first trip outside New Zealand was to Melbourne in 1951 to study paintings in the NGV Collection.)
Jane Devery, Curator of Contemporary Art at the NGV, says some believe McCahon’s name to be synonymous with New Zealand art. “That is not to suggest, however, that his journey as an artist was without difficulty, or that public recognition came easily. McCahon’s work attracted criticism and divided audiences at
different times … he was plagued with persistent self-doubt, yet was driven to communicate his deeply personal vision. McCahon relentlessly interrogated existential questions and never shied from difficult subject matter.” Numerals, texts and biblical themes are recurring features in McCahon’s paintings; attributes Devery says are shared by all of the works in the exhibition. She says his choice of texts was “highly selective and personal”, ranging from the Bible, contemporary poets, lyrics from popular songs and “sometimes simply phrases he had overheard”.
SPIRITUAL POWER
Sometimes his words are smudged; they could be delivered in bold capital letters or via a spidery hand. Words could seem faded, as if they are ancient text recorded untold centuries ago. McCahon did not consider himself to be Christian, but his art feels full of moral authority and spiritual power. His works have the sense of the prophetic.
He once said he saw the job of the painter as “making signs and symbols for people to live by”. Faith and doubt duel in his works. He sometimes paired religious text with moving, broody landscapes. In ‘A Letter to Hebrews (Rain in Northland), 1979’, stark passages from Ecclesiastes are paired with a bleak rendering of the landscape of Northland on New Zealand’s North Island.
“There is a sense of foreboding in McCahon’s script writ large in the sky, delivering its message of uncertainty,” says Devery. Another series that pairs the landscape with religious symbolism is the Beach Walk series, created at his studio on the coast at Muriwai. “The Beach Walk series had a deeply personal significance for McCahon, as they were created at a time when he was coming to terms with the death of his mother and two of his close friends: poets James K. Baxter and Charles Brasch,” says Devery. Following his death in 1987, McCahon’s ashes were scattered at Muriwai.
McCahon-Jones also remembers his father talking fondly about Muriwai. “Dad says of Muriwai Beach, ‘You can’t just go there once and say you’ve seen it. You have to go every day for a year and you still haven’t seen it.’ It is one of those constantly emerging things … Colin does in his art. He chronicles one place in all its moods.”
• Colin McCahon: Letters And Numbers,
April. ngv.vic.gov.au
NGV International to WHO IS COLIN McCAHON?
Colin McCahon is widely recognised as New Zealand’s foremost painter, and a distinctive figure in 20th-century art.
McCahon was born in Timaru on 1 August, 1919. He showed an early interest in art – stimulated by the work of his grandfather, photographer and painter William Ferrier. He studied at the Dunedin School of Art from 1937-39, and first exhibited his work at the Otago Art Society in 1939.
In 1942 McCahon married fellow artist Anne Hamblett. The couple went on to have four children – William, Catherine, Victoria and Matthew. He travelled the South Island getting seasonal work, leaving his family at home. His work from this time reflects the places he went to, notably the Nelson region.
McCahon’s first mature works, religious paintings and symbolic landscapes such as ‘The Angel of the Annunciation’, ‘Takaka: Night and Day’ and ‘The Promised Land’, emerged soon after World War II.
In May 1953, the family moved to Auckland – where McCahon began work at the Auckland City Art Gallery (now known as Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki). They bought a house in French Bay, Titirangi. In April 1956 he became keeper (curator) and deputy director of the gallery. Two years later McCahon and his wife visited the US, and he used the opportunity to see art that interested him and stimulated his own work.
In 1960 the family moved to central Auckland, and in 1964 McCahon resigned from the gallery to become a lecturer in painting at the Elam School of Fine Arts. He taught there for six years, influencing a generation of artists.
During the 1960s McCahon’s work was shown and recognised in New Zealand and around the world. In January 1971 he left Elam to paint full-time. The 1970s were productive years for McCahon, with numerous exhibitions, but by the end of the decade his health was deteriorating. In 1984, the I Will Need Words exhibition was presented in Sydney, but McCahon was barely able to appreciate his growing international reputation. He died in Auckland in 1987, and his ashes were scattered at Muriwai.
Auckland City Art Gallery presented a retrospective of his work in 1988. Further exhibitions, both in New Zealand and overseas, have followed. In 2014, the NZ Herald named McCahon as one of the top 20 New Zealanders of the 20th century.
The article says he “captured the essence of who we are as New Zealanders – one of the most innovative and important painters of religious art in modern times … influenced by Taha Māori”.