Exhibitions
Events
On display
Canterbury Plains by Colin McCahon
Colin McCahon Canterbury Plains c.1950–52. Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwehtu, gifted by the family of Mary and Arthur Prior, 2017. Courtesy of the Colin McCahon Research and Publication Trust
Art Bite
Past event
Meet in the exhibition
Join our registrar Gina Irish and paintings conservator Olivia Pitts as they discuss the acquisition, journey and preparation of Colin McCahon's Canterbury Plains for display in the first-floor collection galleries.
Art Bites are 20-minute lunchtime presentations on a single work on display, presented by our staff, guides and guest speakers.
There's a new Art Bite to enjoy each Friday at 12.30pm.
Related
Exhibition
Our Collection: 19th and 20th Century New Zealand Art
3 March 2018 – 3 March 2020
Our lively new historical collection exhibitions explore Māori architecture, colonial portraiture, early landscape painting and mid-century abstraction.
Collection
Colin McCahon Canterbury Plains
During his time living in Ōtautahi Christchurch in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Colin McCahon completed several paintings of the hills and plains of the Waitaha Canterbury region. The geometric patterns of the paddocks and shelter belts in this work hint at McCahon’s growing interest in abstraction, which would become a major focus in his work. This painting is thought to have been inspired by Te Whakatakanga-o-te-ngārehu-o-te-ahi-a-Tamatea, the city’s Port Hills, not far from where the McCahon family lived in the suburb of Waltham.
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)