item details
NameLandscape theme and variations (series B)
ProductionColin McCahon; artist; 1963; Auckland
Classificationpaintings
Materialsoil paint, jute
Materials Summaryoil on canvas
Techniquespainting
DimensionsOverall: 1765mm (height), 7225mm (length)
Registration Number2011-0028-1/1-8 to 8-8
Credit lineGift of the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa, 2011
Overview
Text originally created for Michael Parekowhai, Colin McCahon, Jim Allen exhibition at Te Papa, August - September 2012.
Colin McCahon wrote of this work: ‘I hoped to throw people into an involvement with the raw land, and also with raw painting.’ After a 1958 trip to the United States, where he saw wall-sized works by Jackson Pollock and others, McCahon realised the power of ‘paintings for people to walk by’.
Here, McCahon’s subject is not a particular landscape. ‘Nor is this the tourist’s landscape,’ he wrote. ‘I am dealing with the essential monotony of this land … a "landscape with too few lovers".’
In 1964, the Arts Advisory Council offered this painting to the National Art Gallery. Not only did the gallery turn it down, its officials
suggested that McCahon needed art lessons. Nearly 40 years later, the painting was gratefully accepted.