B.
Sutton high-fives McCahon
Behind the scenes
Nothing made it into a W.A. Sutton painting by accident, and the white line that rises diagonally through the sky in Plantation Series II is no exception.
A vapour trail left by an aeroplane? Sure, but if that line feels familiar for other reasons, you're onto something. It's also Sutton paying homage to one of the most famous and mysterious diagonals in the Gallery's collection – the ascending black form in Colin McCahon's Tomorrow will be the same but not as this is.
William Alexander Sutton Plantation Series II 1986. Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1986 with assistance from the Olive Stirrat bequest
Colin McCahon Tomorrow will be the same but not as this is 1958–9. Solpah and sand on board. Presented by A Group of Subscribers, December, 1962. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, reproduced courtesy of the Colin McCahon Research and Publication Trust
Related reading: Colin McCahon, In the Vast Emptiness
Exhibition
In the Vast Emptiness
8 January – 21 August 2016
The Canterbury landscape as captured by twentieth century painters.
Exhibition
McCahon / Van der Velden
18 December 2015 – 11 September 2016
An exhibition of two of New Zealand's most respected painters.
Collection
Colin McCahon Tomorrow will be the same but not as this is
In April 1958 Colin McCahon travelled to the US, responding both to the expansiveness of the American landscape and to the modern American painting that he saw in museums. On his return, his works increased in scale while economising in gesture: the landscape elements of Tomorrow have been reduced to a horizon and lowering sky, with the land bisected by a grey river. He converted his Titirangi garage into a studio, and built an extra bedroom for his children underneath. The studio was gloomy – there was only one small side window for light when the garage door was closed – but it precipitated dozens of new works. Tomorrow was an unfortunate painting, said McCahon, ‘in that it wouldn’t go right, and I got madder and madder. I hurled a whole lovely quart tin of black Dulux at the board and reconstructed the painting out of the mess.’ The black paint (a commercial flooring paint, mixed with sand) dripped down the surface of the work and ran between wide cracks in the studio floorboards, ruining clothes and bed linen in his sons’ room below. He finally finished the painting in May 1959.
(March 2018)
Notes
Canterbury Landscape by Colin McCahon
In 2014 we purchased an important landscape work by Colin McCahon. Curator Peter Vangioni speaks about this new addition to Christchurch Art Gallery’s collection.
Notes
‘Where the picture stops and the world begins’
The way a work of art is framed affects our perception of the piece. A bad frame can detract and distract, a good frame enhances and even extends a work. While the Gallery has been closed we have updated frames for a number of works in the collection.
Notes
Mountains, Cass by Rita Angus
This article first appeared as 'The wonders of waterolours' in The Press on 11 August 2015.
Notes
Kauri tree landscape by Colin McCahon
This article first appeared as 'Mighty kauris inspired McCahon' in The Press on 10 February 2015.
Notes
100 years of the Cass field station
Last weekend the University of Canterbury Biology Department celebrated the 100th anniversary of the field station at Cass with a symposium on Cass followed up with a field trip to the station.
Notes
Wainui - to the west of the long harbour
"I like Wainui, quaint, charming, rather like a Pieter Bruegel subject with the haymaking in progress." Rita Angus to Douglas Lilburn, 1943
Notes
as there is a constant flow of light
On a recent printer's residency at the Otago University's Otakou Press Colin McCahon's huge mural painting Waterfall Theme and variations dominated proceedings.
Notes
Light Passing Into a dark landscape
Today is the centennial of the death of one of New Zealand's most treasured artists, Petrus van der Velden.
Notes
There is only one direction by Colin McCahon
This article appeared as 'Divine Innovation' in the The Press on 31 August 2012.
