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• Auction House:
  Webb's
• Sale Name:
  Important Paintings and Contemporary Art
• Sale Date:
  06 Dec 2011 ~ 6.30pm (NZ Time)
• Lot #:
  27
• Lot Description:
  Colin McCahon
  Colin McCahon, Kaipara Flat with Blue Sky, cm001746 Painted by Colin McCahon in 1971 as part of a trilogy of works that makes up the series K
  watercolour on steinbach paper
  1017mm x 670mm
  signed McCahon, dated '71 and inscribed Kaipara Flat with a Blue Sky (1) in pencil upper right
• References:
  Colin McCahon Database Reference (www.mccahon.co.nz) cm001746
• Notes:
  Colin McCahon, Kaipara Flat with Blue Sky, cm001746 Painted by Colin McCahon in 1971 as part of a trilogy of works that makes up the series Kaipara Flat, the present work Kaipara Flat with Blue Sky presents a painterly exercise in mark-making and chromatic nuances. Like the other works in the series painted that year, the horizontal division of the composition immediately places the spectator within the familiar genre of landscape painting. The environs that McCahon transcribes in these works, however, have been distilled and reduced so that only the barest suggestion of a landscape setting remains. Pared back to a thin stretch of ground and a wide sweep of sky, the scene presented in Kaipara Flat with Blue Sky is one of contemplation, observation and overwhelming quietude. Kaipara Flat with Blue Sky features a solid brown band at the base of the painting that works to anchor the composition and above which an amorphous field of azure paint is allowed to billow and weave. In January 1971, McCahon resigned from his teaching position at Elam School of Fine Arts in order to paint full time. He left the city to work in the countryside and Kaipara Flat with Blue Sky along with the other watercolours and acrylics that he completed at this time comprise a suite of landscapes that pay homage to his inspirational surroundings. Depicting the climes of Helensville, Muriwai, Ahipara and Kaipara, these energetic pieces are underpinned by McCahon's environmental concerns and were intended to highlight the increased number of industrial and residential developments that McCahon believed would ultimately deface and despoil New Zealand's largely uncorrupted (and) unique landscape. As such, McCahon presents the environs in their pristine and unadulterated form completely devoid of the human presence that was responsible for the exploitation and destruction of the countryside. Despite, or maybe because of, the absence of formal elements, Kaipara Flat with Blue Sky is home to a wealth of visual interest in the visible traces, dabbles, sweeps and dots of McCahon's brush. Composed using only a russet brown and a rich sapphire blue, the work contains an impressive and alluring quantity of textures, tonal variances and gestural line. The densely coloured ground is home to a soft mottled finish and is further moderated by patches of a slight golden hue as though having caught a glimmer of light. A thin fillet of snowy white divides land from sky, emphasising the untouched emptiness of the terrain. The top portion of the painting is taken up by a broad expanse of sky that swarms across the page in the manner of scudding clouds. This rippling sphere of royal blue is tempered by an array of fine bleeding points of paint, which are evocative of a fine misting rain or shower of lights. Here too, squiggly traces of McCahon's brush are noticeable and work to further activate the composition. Blazing a trail across the firmament, McCahon's brush neatly records the scene before him, securing the memory of a sanctified landscape before it succumbed to the pressures and desires of human advancement. JEMMA FIELD
• Estimate:
  NZ$100,000 - 150,000
• 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.