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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen-Webb's
• Sale Name:
  Important Paintings & Contemporary Art
• Sale Date:
  29 Nov 2016 ~ 6.30pm (NZ time)
• Lot #:
  12
• Lot Description:
  Colin McCahon
  Waterfall
  enamel on hardboard, 1964
  295 x 295mm
  signed COLIN McCOHON, dated 1964 and inscribed WATERFALL / SERIES 2. in marker verso
• References:
  Colin McCahon database www.mccahon.co.nz, reference cm001519.
• Notes:
  By Colin McCahon's eloquence as a writer was shown at its best in the notes he wrote about his Waterfall paintings in the catalogue for his 1972 Survey exhibition at Auckland City Art Gallery. His often-quoted words will bear repeating: 'The waterfalls started flowing in 1964 and there were hundreds of them. They grew out of William Hodges' paintings on loan to the Auckland City Art Gallery from The Admiralty, London;Hodges is my hero in all these paintings but the Fairy Falls in the Waitakares and Japanese and Chinese painting are the real influences later; Waterfalls fell and raged and became still as silent falls of light for a long time. I look back with joy on taking a brush of white paint and curving through the darkness with a line of white' (p. 31). Hodges was the painter on James Cook's third voyage and he painted waterfalls in Dusky Bay, Fiordland which McCahon, as deputy director of Auckland Art Gallery, had the opportunity to study up-close. His claim that there were 'hundreds' of his Waterfalls is certainly an exaggeration, though the series was one of his most numerous and over 90 are recorded on the on-line Database. They were first exhibited at Ikon Fine Arts in Lorne Street, Auckland in September 1964 in an exhibition called Small Landscapes and Waterfalls. There were 44 works in the show, though how many were Waterfalls and how many were Small Landscapes is not recorded. The exhibition was something of a breakthrough for McCahon in terms of popular acceptance. The good sales he experienced may have had something to do with the small size and comparatively low prices of many of the works. They ranged in price from 11 to 50 guineas with the majority being smaller, cheaper works. Many collectors acquired their first McCahon at this exhibition. Later that year six more Waterfall paintings were offered at the annual Group Show in Christchurch at 10 guineas and it is probable that the present work was one of these. The triangular wedge in the upper right corner of this painting is an interesting detail. Only two or three other Waterfalls share this feature while a few others have similar triangles at all four corners. This device links these paintings with the earlier abstract Gate series (1961-62) in which 'corners off' (in McCahon's phrasing) is a familiar feature, possibly copied from Milan Mrkusich. It has the effect of 'denaturalising' the image, aligning it with abstraction not realism. Otherwise 'curving through the darkness with a line of white' is a wholly adequate and accurate description of the central image, the arc or ribbon slightly widening and gathering intensity of whiteness as it reaches the bottom. The agitation of the pool into which the water falls is delightfully suggested by a band of white spots and squiggles, the most naturalistic detail but also the one which is most reminiscent of Japanese practice, in this classically simple and beautiful painting, a 'miracle of rare device'. Peter Simpson
• Estimate:
  NZ$60,000 - 70,000
• 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.