Colin McCahon on film

Press, 24 August 1988, Page 22

Colin McCahon on film

Filming has begun on a documentary about one of New Zealand’s most influential artists, Colin McCahon.

McCahon, who died in 1987, was a part of the movement for cultural nationalism. New Zealand was, so McCahon wrote on his “Northland Panels” “a landscape with too few lovers.” His hope was to make New Zealanders imaginatively as well as physically possess New Zealand. ' McCahon now has the beginnings of an international reputation. His work is hanging in the Australian National Gallery. He exhibited at the Edinburgh Festival and his work was a featured exhibit at the 1984 Sydney Biennale. This year his work is again included in the Biennale as part of the Bicentennial Arts Programme. The McCahon documentary is being produced by Meridian Film Productions of Wellington and is directed by Judy Rymer. It will be released to coincide with a major exhibition of McCahon’s works being planned by the Auckland City Art Gallery for November of this year. This exhibition will also be seen in Dunedin and Wellington before travelling to venues in Australia. The main focus of the film is the work of Colin McCahon, placing it in the context of changing New Zealand society between the 1930 s and 19705, as well as in relation to the developments in international contemporary art during this period. Filming will take place in a number of locations around New Zealand: in galleries in the main centres and in the landscapes he loved from Cape Reinga to the Otago Peninsula.