Colin McCahon

This exhibition is made up of works from two seminal series by Colin McCahon (1919-1987); The Flight From Egypt, 1980 and Angels and Bed, 1976-1977. Both created toward the end of his painting career, they show a deep engagement with the spiritual and emotional dimension of human experience and evidence a lifetime spent asking questions through painting.  

For this exhibition we asked Art Historian and McCahon's paternal grandson, Finn McCahon-Jones, to respond to the works and offer an interpretation based on his own understanding of McCahon's practice.   

Colin McCahon: The Flight From Egypt, 1980 

McCahon often uses the motif of a pillar of light falling from Heaven onto this land, such as in his Necessary Protection series (1971). The light symbolises God's divine nature and his presence all around us in this earthly kingdom. It is a message to enjoy the wonder of the environment, but also that we need to protect it if we want the environment to remain. In the Necessary Protection series his compositions are open and optimistic, the sky and earth are large and easily connect through the flow of light. McCahon is happy. 

In 1971 McCahon had become a full time painter, and gained acceptance and notoriety, becoming somewhat of a messiah in the contemporary art scene. Artists from all over the country flocked to his home to be in his presence. Despite wanting acceptance, this attention became too much, leading him to spend more time out at Muriwai as a way to avoid the groupies constantly calling in on him. It was during this decade that McCahon's practice shifted in an internal direction, as now that he had gained an appreciative audience, he had become suspicious of them.       

Spending time alone, McCahon pondered his life and his faith towards painting. It was also at this time when his friends and supporters started to pass away. McCahon turned towards the Muriwai environment for solace, imagining their souls travelling up Muriwai beach along Te Rerenga Wairua, the trail that departing souls take on their way up to Cape Reinga. 

He imagined their souls jetting out from this world to the next, like airplanes zooming through the sky. He imagined souls jumping over life's obstacles, flying over clifftops; or slow somber walks down the beach towards the cape. The changing landscape doubled as an allegory for life. 

With all this time to think, McCahon became increasingly doubtful of his life endeavours, which is played out in The Flight From Egypt. "WHEN DO WE START" The first panel asks. The mood differs greatly in this painting. The pure light from heaven has been inverted, becoming a dark pillar surrounding small pockets of dimming light. This light, a bright orange and hazy, is a depiction of the late summer sun on Muriwai Beach. But it seems as if we are viewing the beach peering out of the front of a bus window. 

After the glory of others shooting off to heaven in supernatural ways, McCahon imagines himself at the end of his life on the bus slowly trudging along the beach. His trip is annotated "WHEN DO WE GET THERE". "I AM TIRED".  

As a boy McCahon had a vision of an orderly landscape which he describes as an "Egyptian landscape" … "a landscape of splendour, and order and peace."1 McCahon spent his lifetime dedicated to this vision, truly believing he was put on this earth to paint. Yet as he enters his sixth decade of painting he questions himself.  

The black window frames appear as the Tau Cross, weighing heavy on the frame. In a series of paintings made adjacent to this one, he thinks of Moses, who freed the Israelites from slavery. Leading them from Egypt to The Promised Land with the help and guidance of God.  

You can think of McCahon's life as a kind of a parallel to that of Moses - freeing artists from the art guilds that controlled the art scene, leading them to a safe place to practice modernism and new ideas of art. Yet after finally arriving at the place he has longed for - a place of acceptance and regard - he seems unsatisfied. In the final panel he questions himself again - "is THIS the PROMISED LAND". 

In 2023 we still talk about McCahon, we still exhibit his images. He has become the epitome of New Zealand Modern art. Yes, Colin. This is the promised land. You have arrived. 

Finn McCahon-Jones, February 2023 

Colin McCahon : Angels and Bed (1976-1977) 

The paintings in this room were painted by Colin McCahon (1919-1987) towards the end of his painting career, which extended from the 1930s to his last paintings made in 1982. These paintings need to be understood as part of the artists entire oeuvre: What you are looking at here are stark paired back paintings, distilled to an essence at the end of a lifetime of asking questions through painting. 

The Angels and Bed series is said to be loosely based on the elements of the hallway of his Grey Lynn villa, as seen in a spiritual state. The artist's son, William McCahon recalls the event which he believes these paintings stem from - "One day before the time of these works, when I was calling in to see Colin and Anne, I found Colin on the floor, in the hall in a deep trance.  At first thinking him dead, I stooped to examine him, and detected the faintest of breath from his gaping mouth... Later talking to Anne, my mother, she had also seen him in this state and not interfered. But later would say... 'Colin's soul had flown out of his mouth and not properly come back.' "2

We are unsure what happened to McCahon that day, but The Family jokes that this was the day McCahon met God. You could say that these paintings depict a near death experience, where the physical world becomes black, and the aperture around the doors and windows manifest as saturated blocks of light. Or perhaps they are abstract maps of his journey as angels took him from where he lay in the hallway to a place of supernatural light. 

In some traditions, angels are believed to be present and watchful over human beings during sleep, and may even help guide and protect them in their dreams. In this sense, angels and beds may be associated with rest, comfort, and spiritual protection. 

Additionally, in some religious artwork and literature, angels are depicted as being present at the deathbeds of individuals, comforting and guiding them through the transition from life to death.  

Many of the Angels and Bed series were dedicated by McCahon to his friends who had had accidents. The first Angels and Bed, dedicated to lifelong friend Rodney Kennedy, is inscribed "YOU COME & GET IT. I'M NOT SENDING IT" The painting is transformed through this inscription, from a depiction of death, into a message of hope. Prompting Kennedy to return from the angels to his bed.  

For McCahon, who had a life long fascination with religious experience has found it at home. McCahon communicates to his viewers a deep and personal experience about travelling through a spiritual landscape. He reminds us that our everyday lives are shrouded in mystery and moments of solace.  

Finn McCahon-Jones, February 2023 

_____________________________

References:

1.      Colin McCahon, Beginnings. Landfall, V.20, No.4, December 1966 
2.      William McCahon; personal correspondence. c.1990s. Author's provenance.