Colin McCahon
Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1919, d.1987
As there is a constant flow of light we are born into the pure land
- 1965
- PVA on board
- Purchased with assistance from Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, 1982
- Reproduced courtesy of Colin McCahon Research and Publication Trust
- 655 x 1870mm
- 82/73
Tags: horizon line, landscapes (representations), natural landscapes, words
‘As there is a constant flow of light we are born into the pure land.’ Colin McCahon quoted this text often on works between the mid-1960s and early 1970s: he took it from the writings of a twelfth-century Japanese Buddhist monk, Shinran, who was the founder of a tradition known as Pure Land Buddhism. McCahon had long been interested in light as a metaphor both for faith and enlightenment, and had begun a related series of dramatic semi-abstract waterfall paintings in 1964, in which a curve of white light cleaved through darkness. Here the landscape element has been reduced to a simple horizon, a dividing line between sky and sea, or sky and land, at the very edge of vision. (March 2018)
Exhibition History
McCahon / Van der Velden, 18 December 2015 – 7 August 2016
“I was very lucky and grew up knowing I would be a painter. I never had any doubts about this. I knew it as a very small boy and I knew it later. I know it now when it is too late to turn back and only wish I were a better painter. Painting to me is like lambs born in the spring, rain, wind, sun. Like chopping down trees in the wilderness and living with the slaughtered stumps, of not seeing the beauty I look for, and also seeing the beauty of another world – of words. I talk all my paintings to myself.” —Colin McCahon
Brought to light, November 2009- 22 February 2011
When it was purchased in 1982, this work divided public opinion. A local radio station even invited listeners to produce their own mocking copies of paintings by Colin McCahon. But in contrast to the public debate that surrounded it, this painting is serene and luminous. The notion of ‘constant flow’ is central to Buddhist teachings, and a related tradition is known as ‘pure land’ Buddhism. McCahon is well known for his exploration of Christianity, but his originality lies especially in paintings like this one, where he brings together forms and ideas drawn from many different spiritual traditions.
Stripped bare of identifying features, Colin McCahon’s painting does not refer to any particular place. Rather it is universal - the symbolic treatment giving a sense of the land’s past, present and future. McCahon uses dark and light as symbols for good and evil, heaven and earth, life and death. McCahon’s creative beliefs fitted well with Abstract Expressionism, a style that is fundamentally introspective, passionate and often concerned with personal spirituality. McCahon is now widely regarded as New Zealand’s most important modern painter. He was born in Timaru and studied art in Dunedin, first exhibiting his work in 1949. He spent time in Christchurch and Nelson but moved to Auckland in 1953, working first at the City Art Gallery, then at the University of Auckland School of Fine Arts. In 1970 he resigned from teaching to paint fulltime. McCahon died in Auckland. (Opening Gallery hang, 2003)
Colin McCahon is now widely regarded as New Zealand's most important modern painter. He did not subscribe completely to non-figurative abstraction recognising that, for many of his artistic statements, he would also "need words". As you see in this work, however, the words are given the same attention in colour and brushwork as any other element in the painting. How they are painted adds considerably to the meaning the painter intended you to gather from the statement.
The phrase "As there is a constant flow of light we are born into the pure land" was used quite frequently in McCahon's works of the mid 1970s. There is a clear spiritual message in this statement, and here he has used it in the centre of three blocks or panels. This invites us to read them left to right as a sequence or narrative. We are led from the dark to the blazing light of day as it floods across the horizon and fills the land at our feet. Beyond it is all dark again. The future is unknown.
Colin McCahon, who was born in Timaru in 1919, studied art in Dunedin. He painted for some time in Christchurch and Nelson before moving to Auckland and a position at the Auckland City Art Gallery. By 1975, when he painted this work, he had left his teaching position at the University of Auckland School of Fine Arts and was painting full-time from his studio at Muriwai Beach on the west coast, north of Auckland. (Label from before 2002)
Related reading: McCahon and van der Velden
Commentary
What We Talk About With McCahon
Where to begin when writing or talking about Colin McCahon? I remember seeing one of his paintings for the first time, a North Otago landscape painted deep green with a sunless white sky on a piece of hardboard, hanging at the Forrester Gallery in Ōamaru while on a family trip when I was a young teenager. I felt like I recognised the landscape depicted from what I saw around me growing up, but I hadn’t seen it reduced to something so stark and primal before.
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
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.
Article
Gazumped
One of the exhibitions brought to a halt by the 22 February earthquake was De-Building, which critic Warren Feeney had described only days earlier as 'Christchurch Art Gallery's finest group show since it opened in 2003'. Seven months on, the show's curator, Justin Paton, reflects on random destruction, strange echoes, critical distance, and the 'gazumping of art by life'.
Interview
Otira: it's a state of mind
A short road trip to the Otira Gorge was the scene for a conversation between Gallery curator Peter Vangioni and two of the artists included in Van der Velden: Otira, Jason Greig and the Torlesse Supergroup's Roy Montgomery.
Article
Van der Velden: Otira
A first encounter with a painting by Petrus van der Velden more than twenty years ago was the start of many years of research for Gallery curator Peter Vangioni. Peter is the lead author of the Gallery's new book on van der Velden, and talks here of his fascination with the artist's Otira works.
Collection
Colin McCahon Van Gogh: Poems by John Caselberg
Colin McCahon produced his first lithograph in 1954, and in 1957 completed two suites of lithographs, including Van Gogh – poems by John Caselberg. He employed a commercial lithographer for these works with mixed results, likely due to the fact that he had little say in quality control with the printer. Nevertheless, it was ultimately a successful suite. Colin incorporated John Caselberg’s poem sequence, ‘Van Gogh’, into his drawings, writing the poem out across several sheets in his iconic handwriting, which he also usedin his paintings. Colin also worked with other print mediums, including a small potato print also in this exhibition, but it is his lithographs from the 1950s that were his most successful.
Ink on Paper: Aotearoa New Zealand Printmakers of the Modern Era, 11 February – 28 May 2023
Collection
Petrus van der Velden Mount Rolleston and the Otira River
Talking about his first visit to Ōtira in 1890, Rotterdam-born artist Petrus van der Velden later recalled, “For the first three days I did nothing at all but just looked, it took my breath away.” A highly skilled professional artist with substantial exhibiting experience in the Netherlands, van der Velden prioritised capturing or expressing emotion in his art over recording the physical features of the landscape. The awe-inspiring setting aided him in this pursuit – especially during stormy weather – and drew him back again and again.
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Collection
Colin McCahon Blind V
The word ‘blind’ refers to a screen that cuts out light, but Colin McCahon also uses it to refer to an absence of vision. Questions of faith were important to McCahon and he often used references to blindness to suggest the inability to see the real essence and value of things. McCahon’s style was highly personal and distinctive. Blind V is part of a series of five works painted onto window blinds. The abstract forms have the feel of a beach and sky and it has been suggested that the ‘blindness’ which McCahon refers to was the inability of New Zealanders to really see and appreciate their own unique environment.
McCahon is regarded by many as New Zealand’s greatest contemporary artist. Born in Timaru, he studied art in Dunedin. He lived in Christchurch for a time, became keeper and assistant director at Auckland Art Gallery, then lecturer in painting at the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, before taking up painting full time in 1970.
Collection
Petrus van der Velden Sumner
“Colour is light, light is love and love is God and therefore on Sundays instead of going to church I teach my children drawing after nature. I have come to the conclusion that painting or drawing after nature, instead of being a luxury is the most necessary for the education of man. […] The aim of our existence is nothing else than to study nature and with so doing to understand more and more how grand and pure nature is and gives evidence of so much love.”
—Petrus van der Velden
(McCahon / Van der Velden, 18 December 2015 – 7 August 2016)
Collection
Petrus van der Velden Nor'western Sky
“‘Colour is light’ and there is no darkness at all – there is light or less light. In each part, even the darkest, there is some light and the difficulty is to get the different kinds of light showing in even quite small parts. There are no hard lines in nature – the light shines in and round everything and breaks all the hardness by modifying and diffusing the apparently sharp edges.” —Petrus van der Velden
(McCahon / Van der Velden, 18 December 2015 – 7 August 2016)
Collection
Petrus van der Velden Atmospheric Study, Sumner
Petrus van der Velden valued the medium of drawing as highly as painting and was an extremely talented draughtsman. Spontaneously drawn outdoors directly before the subject, this small study shows Van der Velden’s interest in depicting dramatic, stormy atmospheric conditions with strong contrasts of light and dark. In the early 1890s, van der Velden and his family settled in Sumner, Christchurch where they stayed with the Van Asch family. Van der Velden immediately went about sketching in the region, and by the end of the year he had completed several major paintings based on Sumner scenes. Born in Rotterdam, van der Velden established himself as a painter, particularly of marine subjects, before he and his wife emigrated from Holland in 1890. He struggled to make a living in Christchurch, however, and moved to Sydney in 1898. He returned to settle in Wellington in 1904 and died in Auckland.