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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen-Webb's
• Sale Name:
  Important Paintings & Contemporary Art
• Sale Date:
  11 Apr 2017 ~ 6.30pm (NZ time)
• Lot #:
  31
• Lot Description:
  Colin McCahon
  Landscape Multiple No.2
  sawdust, synthetic polymer paint on hardboard, 1968
  302mm x 300mm
  signed Colin McCahon, inscribed Landscape Multiple, dated May June '68, No. 2 of a series of 12, No. 2
  NOTE: There were twelve works in this series. Although called Multiples; each work was unique.
• Exhibited:
  1968 Auckland: Colin McCahon's Bargain Basement! of Multiples & Variations on his Regular Themes also Visible Mysteries, Barry Lett Galleries, 14-25 October 1968, cat. No. 2
• References:
  Colin McCahon database www.mccahon.co.nz, reference cm001447
• Notes:
  In 1968, Barry Lett Galleries announced jauntily: "Colin McCahon's Bargain Basement! Of Multiples and Variations on His Regular Themes". There were four series included: 12 Landscape Multiples ; eight paintings called Helensville ; four paintings called South Canterbury ; and six South Canterbury Landscape Variations . This amounted to a total of 30 small paintings. Also included in the same exhibition were eight Visible Mysteries - another kettle of fish altogether. All 12 Landscape Multiples are variations on a theme. Each consists of two zones, upper and lower, sky and earth, divided by a horizon line which is more or less straight. The horizon always falls in the same place making the lower section somewhat larger than is the upper. Another common element is the medium; in the lower parts, sawdust is mixed with the acrylic paint, producing a grainy texture and this is especially noticeable in the present example. The strongest differences between the works are in colour, which varies considerably from pale to strong. There are also minor differences in the handling of the two zones of the painting. In the present example, the ochre sky is itself in two parts, the narrower, darker, upper part being suggestive of a band of clouds; this same division is apparent in other examples of the series. The lower 'earth' zone also varies from work to work; sometimes it is solid but, in others (as in this instance), crossed by a diagonal fissure (which may lean left or right), formed by the absence of the grainy, sawdust-induced texture. Though small in size, this work punches above its weight, so to speak. Handsome, stylish and unmistakeable, it contains within its fundamental contrast of sky and earth, light and dark, an authentic manifestation of McCahon's artistic DNA. PETER SIMPSON
• Estimate:
  NZ$35,000 - 45,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.