Home New Zealand – August 01, 2019

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CULTURE

An in-depth exhibition of Colin

McCahon’s work focuses on his

connection with Auckland and marks

the centenary of his birth. Auckland

Art Gallery curator Ron Brownson

discusses the survey of one of

New Zealand’s foremost artists.

A Place to Paint

Colin McCahon

in Auckland

DETAILS

A Place to Paint:

Colin McCahon in Auckland

10 August 2019 – 27 January, 2020

From the Archive:

Colin McCahon in Auckland

Until 31 January, 2020

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki,

Corner Kitchener & Wellesley

Streets, Auckland

For more information, visit:

aucklandartgallery.com

There are 25 key paintings from the

gallery’s collection and from private

collections. What can we expect to

see? The exhibition is divided into

three sections – 1950s, 1960s and

1970s – with a very focused sampling

to give you a sense of McCahon’s major

contribution to Auckland art. He came

here in 1953 and spent the majority

of his life here, so the exhibition really

has to do with the works he painted

between 1953 and the end of his

career, around 1987. A number of the

works are very large, or long and multi-

part – diptychs and triptychs – and

others have more elements. It will feel

very rich, but intimate at the same time.

Tell us about some of the rarely

seen works. In the 1950s section,

we have a work from the University of

Auckland Student Association collection

called ‘Let us Possess One World’, with

the phrase ‘each has one, and is one’.

There’s very much a prescient quality

to the work – 60 years on, the written

message communicates something

very meaningful to us today. Another

work from the 50s is ‘Painting’ (1958),

which is an incredible piece that won

the Hay’s Prize. You look at it 61 years

later and it is every bit as challenging

now. You get a taste of what McCahon

was involved with – he was painting

about global concerns and the realities

of a time when there was a great threat

about nuclear war, while other paintings

have to do with flight above the

Manukau Harbour. All these works

are in conversation with each other

in the room. We spent a lot of time

making sure this exhibition gives you

a sense of the key concerns of those

three decades.

The exhibition coincides with the

centenary of McCahon’s birth. Did

other reasons prompt a retrospective?

The last large McCahon show was in

2002 – there are people under 40 who

may have never seen a show at all.

What I find amazing about McCahon

is that his finest works still have the

power to speak to us with astonishing

and unforgettable intensity. The big

questions are always the big questions,

and many of the big questions stay

with us. What do we believe in?