bLOGOS/HA HA: Colin McCahon centenary

David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.

16 February 2020

Colin McCahon centenary | NGV & MADA

To mark the centenary of the birth of the great
New Zealand artist Colin McCahon (1919-1987),
the National Gallery of Victoria has a small exhibition of McCahon works at the third floor
of NGV International.

Colin McCahon: Letters and Numbers
click for essay by Jane Devery

Colin McCahon: Letters and Numbers

click for Memo Review by Luke Smythe

To further this observance, Luke Smythe at Monash Art Design & Architecture organised a free symposium, which was given yesterday. For those of us who were there, it was a rich occasion.

Colin McCahon Centenary Symposium

Rex Butler, Professor of Art History & Theory, Monash University, Melbourne
Martin Edmond, Sydney-based writer and author of Dark Night: Walking with McCahon (2011)
Brent Harris, Melbourne-based artist
Jane McCabe, Lecturer in History, Otago University, Dunedin
Peter Simpson, former Associate Professor, University of Auckland and author of a new two-volume survey of McCahon's work
Laurence Simmons, Professor of Film, Television and Media Studies, University of Auckland
Luke Smythe, Lecturer in Art History & Theory, Monash University

For your correspondent, McCahon has been a key artist since the early-mid 1970s.

Less so for some. From a 1978 notebook, this is how miserably and ignorantly his great Victory over death 2 (1970) was given and received by the then political leadership of New Zealand and Australia.