Colin McCahon

1919-1987, b. Timaru
Lived and worked in Auckland

Colin McCahon is now regarded as one of New Zealand's greatest painters and is undoubtedly New Zealand’s most well known twentieth century artist. As both an artist and writer he has had a profound influence not only on the modern generation of New Zealand painters but also on the way in which New Zealanders see their landscape. While his work traversed subjects as diverse as landscape, identity, religion, faith, doubt and the threat of warfare, his ultimate concern was the human condition.

McCahon was born in Timaru in 1919 and spent most of his youth in Dunedin. He attended Otago Boys’ High School and, while his experience there was largely unhappy, he found some enjoyment in the weekend art lessons he received from Russell Clark.

In 1937 McCahon enrolled at the Dunedin School of Art. During his two years there he was introduced to many people who would influence his later work, including teachers Robert Field, Gordon Tovey and Douglas Charlton Edgar, and students Doris Lusk, his future wife Anne Hamblett (a former student and friend of influential New Zealand artist Toss Woollaston) and Rodney Kennedy.

McCahon’s early landscape paintings reveal his interest in Cezanne, Gauguin and the cubists; influences that were revived in 1951 after he visited Melbourne cubist painter Mary Cockburn-Mercer. In 1946 the first of his religious paintings emerged, illustrating the beginning of McCahon’s lifelong exploration of themes relating to faith, spirituality, life and death. Many of these works, such as The King of the Jews of 1947, incorporated text within the painting, often in the form of cartoon-inspired speech bubbles which enabled the biblical figures to speak.

This use of text later expanded to include writing in Maori, writing by New Zealand poet John Caselberg and the incorporation of numbers. Employed to aid him in better communicating with the viewers of his work, McCahon’s attraction to text was in part inspired by his recollections of the sign-writing on shop windows he had seen and admired as a child.

A pivotal moment in McCahon’s career came in 1958 when a Carnegie Grant enabled him to paint and study in the USA. After seeing in person work by many of Europe and America’s great painters, McCahon returned to New Zealand with a new appreciation for large scale work. He began to create ‘paintings to walk by’, resulting in large landscape abstractions on panels of unstretched canvas.

After periods working at the Auckland public art gallery and as a lecturer at the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland, McCahon devoted himself to painting full time from 1970.

McCahon’s relationship with the Auckland’s western suburbs played a significant role in much of his work. After living in West Auckland’s Titirangi for a period during the 1950s, McCahon later established a studio at Muriwai Beach where several major series based in this part of Auckland were produced. Many of these works, dating from the 1970s, relate to Auckland’s west coast and were inspired by McCahon’s environmental concerns for the region, prompted initially by his observations of the gannet colony living amongst the beach’s cliffs.

McCahon’s interest in poetry and biblical literature was to culminate during his final decade, resulting in his large scale word paintings which consisted purely of white text on a black ground. These are amongst the artist’s most powerful works, their stark appearance and solemn passages imparting messages of both faith and doubt.

Not only was McCahon a remarkable painter, but the critical thought and philosophical enquiry of his works carry great weight, continuing to resonate with viewers today. His works are held in all major public and private collections throughout New Zealand and in many collections and institutions worldwide.