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Lot #24 - Colin McCahon

  • Auction House:
    Mossgreen-Webb's
  • Sale Name:
    Important Paintings and Contemporary Art
  • Sale Date:
    07 Aug 2017 ~ 6.30pm (NZST)
  • Lot #:
    24
  • Lot Description:
    Colin McCahon
    Visible Mysteries no.4
    synthetic polymer paint on hardboard, 1968
    1220mm x 608mm
    signed McCahon no.4 and dated SEPT 68 in brushpoint lower right; inscribed Visible Mysteries no.4, signed Colin McCahon and dated Sept 68 in brushpoint verso, inscribed 'Colin McCahon, PRIVATE COLLECTION 1968' on printed HANLY label affixed verso, inscribed HANLY P/Coll 1986 in acrylic verso
  • Provenance:
    From the Collection of Pat and Gil Hanly. Purchased from Barry Lett Galleries, 1968.
  • Exhibited:
    Colin McCahon's Bargain Basement! Of Multiples and Variations on his Regular Themes…Also Visible Mysteries: a series of eight paintings arising from the Bellini Madonna series and the more recent series Still Life with [an] Altar, Barry Lett Galleries, 1968.
  • References:
    Colin McCahon database, www.mccahon.co.nz, reference number cm000412; ILLUSTRATED: Gordon H. Brown, Colin McCahon Artist (Wellington: Reed Books, 1984), p.145.
  • Notes:
    Writing in the catalogue of his 1972 touring Survey exhibition, Colin McCahon said of his 1968 series Visible Mysteries: "I feel that some of this series will eventually be seen as more successful than they might now appear." Certainly, from the perspective of 2017, the Visible Mysteries works (there were eight of them) seem highly successful - bold, beautiful, resonant and finely resolved. And, of the whole series, no. 4 is probably the richest in colour, imagery and connotations. To put the painting into an explanatory perspective, its Eucharistic imagery - the sacred heart of Jesus, the blood miraculously transformed into a chalice of wine, the table of the Last Supper becoming the altar of the communion service - belongs to the most explicitly Catholic period of the artist's work. McCahon himself never joined the Church but completed many commissions which required knowledge of Catholic ritual and symbolism; this, in turn, influenced his own practice. This phase of his career was instigated in 1966 by the commission to create windows (now removed) and a Stations of the Cross for a Convent chapel in Upland Road, Remuera. For this, he made a careful study of Catholic iconography, especially for the 13-panel East Window, which included numerous evocations of Jesus through Christograms, such as IHS and XP (chi-rho), and traditional symbols, such as a lighted candle, cross and chalice. In a small 1967 series (four works), called Still life with altar, McCahon combined a stylised altar with a hovering heart (in red or white), presumably signifying the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is widespread in Catholic symbolism. These same elements carried over to the Visible Mysteries series of the following year (provoked, McCahon said enigmatically, by "things that happened to me in 1967") but with additional items in some works, such as the chalice in no. 4. In Visible Mysteries, McCahon used two different formats: three of the works measure about 900mm x 1200mm and are confined in colour to black and white; and, the other five measure about 1220mm x 608mm, are in vertical (or 'portrait') format, and are more varied in imagery and colour. no. 4 is the most various of all - the heart (a communion wafer?) is white on black, the altar (in the shape of a T-cross) is yellow ochre (there's also a yellow strip at the top) with marbled grey shading on the upright, and the blood/wine (curving like a McCahon waterfall from heart to chalice) is red/brown. The title of the series comes from a quotation in the bottom left corner and is common to all eight works: GRANT THAT WHAT WE HAVE RECEIVED / IN VISIBLE MYSTERIES / WE MAY RECEIVE IN ITS INVISIBLE EFFECT. These words are from a post-communion prayer used on Ascension Thursday, which McCahon took from the New Sunday Missal, a Catholic liturgical calendar he owned. The quotation (among other things) points to how this wonderful painting works; its imagery ('visible mysteries') is received by viewers (the 'invisible effect') according to their individual lights, whether religious, aesthetic or both. PETER SIMPSON
  • Estimate:
    NZ$480,000 - 700,000
  • 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.



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