HOME NEW ZEALAND 157FILTER
CULTURELeft Colin McCahon
in 1961.
Right ‘Moby Dick is sighted
off Muriwai Beach’ (1972),
synthetic polymer paint
on canvas.
Below ‘May His Light
Shine, Tau Cross’ (1979),
synthetic polymer paint
on unstretched canvas.Above ‘Cross’ (1959),
enamel on hardboard.
What can we know about where we
live? How can we care for where we
live? Audiences of art are now so
unbelievably visually knowledgeable
that when they look at McCahon’s
work they are going to find it absolutely
intriguing, memorable and stimulating.
When he was alive, people said it was
going to take time to catch up with his
way of seeing. Well, I think we have
caught up.This is the first public showing, as
an artwork, of painted windows that
McCahon completed in 1965 for the
Convent Chapel of the Sisters of our
Lady of the Missions in Remuera.
Could you explain their significance?
The work came into the gallery’s
collection in 1989, two years after Colin
McCahon died. It was his first religious
commission. The architect James
Hackshaw commissioned Colin to
paint the windows in the north, south,
east and west clerestories. They took
McCahon a year to complete – some
work was done in-situ, and some
from his Elam studio. McCahon’s
interpretation is as if the Stations of theCross are occurring here in Auckland
across our volcanic topography. It’s
like a cross-section of the isthmus of
Auckland – a painting as a meditation.
This was at the time when the Vatican
Council was leading towards renewal
of the Roman Catholic Church. They
were interested in the notion of
artworks being able to complement
lessons, learnings and meditations
of faith. Archbishop James Liston
and director of missions Dr Reginald
Delargy had very rigorous and vigorous
conversations with McCahon about
how traditional Roman Catholic
symbols could be included in a chapel
dedicated to prayer and meditation.McCahon worked at Auckland Art
Gallery for almost a decade. Can you
explain how is this explored in the
exhibition? The adjunct exhibition
From the Archive: Colin McCahon in
Auckland is based around photographs,
ephemera and publications from his
time at the gallery. McCahon taught
painting here, promoted acquisitions
and was a brilliant curator, and this
is not well known.