Gow Langsford
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Art Fairs
  • Events
  • News
  • Shop
  • Video
  • Viewing Rooms
  • About
  • Contact
Cart
0 items NZD$
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu

Colin McCahon

  • Overview
  • Works
  • Exhibitions
  • Publications
  • News
  • Events
  • Art Fairs
  • Enquire
  • Previous artist Browse artists Next artist
Colin McCahon, Kauri, 1953
Colin McCahon, Kauri, 1953
Colin McCahon, Kauri, 1953
Colin McCahon, Kauri, 1953
Colin McCahon, Kauri, 1953

Colin McCahon

Kauri, 1953
oil on cardboard
637 x 510mm
825 x 700 x 55mm framed
Enquire
%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22artist%22%3EColin%20McCahon%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22title_and_year%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_title%22%3EKauri%3C/span%3E%2C%20%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_year%22%3E1953%3C/span%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22medium%22%3Eoil%20on%20cardboard%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22dimensions%22%3E637%20x%20510mm%3Cbr/%3E%0A825%20x%20700%20x%2055mm%20framed%3C/div%3E

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) Colin McCahon, Kauri, 1953
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) Colin McCahon, Kauri, 1953
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 3 ) Colin McCahon, Kauri, 1953
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 4 ) Colin McCahon, Kauri, 1953
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 5 ) Colin McCahon, Kauri, 1953
View on a Wall
Inscription McCahon / Dec 53 (brushpoint, b.l.) One of the strongest themes throughout Colin McCahon’s oeuvre is the kauri tree. The artist moved to Auckland from the South Island in...
Read more
Inscription
McCahon / Dec 53 (brushpoint, b.l.)

One of the strongest themes throughout Colin McCahon’s oeuvre is the kauri tree. The artist moved to Auckland from the South Island in 1953. Settling with his family in the West Auckland suburb of Titirangi, McCahon found himself in an environment surrounded by native bush. The bush had many kauri trees, and they were to become his key subject matter over the next few years.

Discussing works from McCahon’s 1953 Kauri series, writer Peter Simpson describes, “[…] a sense of interiority, the absence of horizon and the emphasis on the verticality of the kauri trunks extending to the top edge of the picture - the slim 'rickers of the regenerating forest around the McCahons' home.” This painting, one of several from 1953 with the title Kauri, has the compositional qualities Simpson speaks of. It also has one foot firmly planted in cubist abstraction, which interested McCahon greatly.

Cubism may have been part of what he admired in the work of Louise Henderson. He saw more of the Paris-born artist’s paintings once based in Auckland, and he wrote enthusiastically about them on several occasions. Henderson had travelled to Paris to study under notable cubist painter Jean Metzinger, and her work reflected that period of learning. Simpson states, “The excitement McCahon felt for Henderson's work was partly in feeling brought close to the original discoveries of Picasso, Braque and Gris in Paris half a century earlier.”

The influence of cubism is also apparent in McCahon’s work from this period, though what McCahon did was not ‘cubism’ per se. Rather, he created work that responded to cubist modes of image making while engaging his local environment.

Kauri features a restrained palette in cool greys and warmer tones of yellow ochre. The diagonal weave of the composition offers a visual impression of dense bush, tree trunks, and the dynamic dance of light through foliage. The work clearly has a cubist inflection, though it retains some of the primordial wildness of New Zealand’s native bush. Kauri is a distinctive example of McCahon’s painting from a key period in his career.
Close full details

Provenance

Private Collection, Australia

Exhibitions

Colin McCahon: A Question of Faith, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 30/8/2002 - 10/11/2002
This Must Be The Place, Inaugural Exhibition, 6 April - 4 May 2024, Gow Langsford Gallery, Onehunga, NZ
Colin McCahon: A Journey, 23 November 2024 - 25 January 2025, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Previous
|
Next
16 
of  16

Sign up to our mailing list

Submit

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied to communicate with you in accordance with our Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.

About

News

Contact

Send an email
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Privacy Policy
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025 Gow Langsford
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Find out more about cookies.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences