Find Lots

• Auction House:
  Webb's
• Sale Name:
  Important Paintings and Contemporary Art
• Sale Date:
  06 Dec 2011 ~ 6.30pm (NZ Time)
• Lot #:
  34
• Lot Description:
  Colin McCahon
  In 1969, Colin and Anne McCahon acquired some land at Muriwai Beach, north-west of Auckland, on which they built a dwelling and a large studio for Col
  synthetic polymer paint on Steinbach paper mounted on board
  730mm x 1112mm
  signed Colin McCahon, dated Feb - August '72 and inscribed Taitimu Tangi Muriwai, Seaweed on the Beach in brushpoint lower edge
• References:
  Colin McCahon Database Reference (www.mccahon.co.nz) cm000438
• Notes:
  In 1969, Colin and Anne McCahon acquired some land at Muriwai Beach, north-west of Auckland, on which they built a dwelling and a large studio for Colin; soon afterwards, he retired from teaching at Elam. Suddenly, for the first time in his life, he was a full-time painter. These changes led to a huge increase in McCahon's output in the early 1970s, much of it stimulated by the new landscape opened up to him at Muriwai. At first it was the towering cliffs at Maori Bay and the rock stack of Moturoa with their associated bird colonies that attracted his attention, especially in the large series of abstracted landscapes he called Necessary Protection (1971) and in later series such as Jump (1974). However, increasingly from 1972, it was Muriwai Beach itself which became the focus of many paintings, especially in such grand series as Beach Walk (1973), Blind and The Shining Cuckoo (both 1974). Before these more ambitious works were conceived, McCahon made a number of individual paintings with the beach as his subject of which Seaweed on the Beach is one. A second painting with the same title, but on canvas rather than paper, is also dated 1972, as are two closely related paintings (one on paper, one on canvas) with the title Low Tide, Muriwai. While they are primarily descriptive of the conditions referred to in their titles, there is another layer of meaning introduced by the words inscribed along the bottom of all four paintings: Taitimu. Tangi. Muriwai. 'Taitimu' in Maori means low tide, while 'tangi', of course, alludes to grieving for the dead. Some years earlier, McCahon had acquired a book called The Tail of the Fish: Maori Memories of the Far North by Matire Kereama on which he drew for many paintings, the best known of which is The Lark's Song (1969). By 1972, the part which most pre-occupied him was Chapter 24, 'Going Out with the Tide', which begins: When I was a child, no person died without first asking about the state of the tide, whether it was full or low. People always liked to die at low tide because the tide had to be completely out to enable them to reach Te Reinga Wairua, 'The Leaping Place of Spirits', in the Far North. This is a large hole at the bottom of the sea which is exposed at low tide, permitting the spirits to go inside. When the tide is full, the hole is under water and covered with masses of seaweed (p. 74). These words are the clue to the wider meaning of the works under discussion. They are paintings about death and the spirit's journey to Cape Reinga: a pathway that included Muriwai Beach as one of the stations along the way. In later paintings, McCahon would associate this spirit journey with dead friends such as the poets James K. Baxter, R.A.K. Mason and Charles Brasch. The white lines on black suggest waves at night, while the seaweed of the title is signified by the words Taitimu. Tangi. Muriwai. The identification of seaweed on the beach with writing is explicit in a September 1972 letter McCahon wrote to the painter Pat France while working on these paintings. Unique to this particular painting is the remarkable sky, with its curdled grey clouds and its curiously ominous dark rain cloud, like a portent of death, perhaps, much like the similarly threatening cloud above an ocean in Allen Curnow's exactly contemporary poem, Lone Kauri Road. PETER SIM
• Estimate:
  NZ$250,000 - 350,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

  Can't see the realised price? Upgrade your subscription now!

• Category:
  Art

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