Large Exhibition Of Recent Paintings By Colin McCahon

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29021, 9 October 1959, Page 13

Large Exhibition Of Recent Paintings By Colin McCahon

Colin McCahon’s exhibition of recent paintings and drawings at Gallery 91 is no less remarkable than his illuminations of John Caselbergs’ poem, “The Wake,” which were shown in the city earlier this year. It is a very large exhibition, easily filling all the wall space in the gallery, although it consists entirely of work done between November. 1958, and August this year Although it may not take Mr McCahon very long to put the paint on this is still an extraordinary creative outburst.

It is doubtful whether any of the sets or individual works in the show are on quite the same level as “The Wake.” but the total effect of the exhibition is equally telling. It is uneven—the sets of drawings based in numerals, for instance, are nowhere near Mr McCahon’s best —but the level is remarkably high. Of the works which are in sets, the 35 Northland drawings and the eight Northland panels are outstanding. They are filled with the disquieting feeling which an American visitor a year or two ago complained that he found in the New Zealand bush. The New Zealand landscape ’s rarely mild or pretty: it is strong, often harsh, and it evokes strong feelings. It is these feelings with which Colin McCahon’s painting is largely concerned, although more specifically human qualities are also present.

Anyone who equates art with elegance, refinement or beauty in the conventional sense of the word may be repelled by these works at first and anyone whose experience does not include contact with the New Zealand landscape in its more powerful manifestations may have no affinity with them. Formally, the works in this exhibition show a reversion to the

big, emotional forms of Mr McCahon’s early religious painting. But his preoccupation with space in recent years has resulted in more sophisticated handling of these forms. Whereas once they jostled each other now he uses space to create taut relationships between them.

Many ( of the paintings carrywriting, as “The Wake” series did. Some are built up almost entirely from writing so that the shapes of the letters are the forms of the painting. At other times the words play a less important role, but, with a few exceptions, the letter-forms are always integrated with the whole composition. Sometimes the painting is related to and intensifies the words; at other times the painting creates a feeling around the words. Many of the drawings and paintings have been done with great freedom, and occasionally the energy has not been guided by the imagination, resulting in a meaningless scribble, but only occasionally. There is, however, very little sensuous appeal in these works; there are no incidental decorative qualities in them which can be easily admired and they don’t look like the paintings of anyone else, here or abroad—although there are affinities with some American painting. Anyone going to see them must expect more than to have the eye titillated. Those who approach Mr McCahon s work in this way and are prepared to spend time getting to know it will find the experience deeply rewarding. Colin McCahon is one of the very few painters in this country who is also an artist. —J.N.K.