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
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
At yesterday's symposium, Rex Butler spoke about Colin McCahon's last four paintings, one of which is included (as below) in the NGV exhibition.
LOGOS/HA HA
- 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.
At yesterday's symposium, Rex Butler spoke about Colin McCahon's last four paintings, one of which is included (as below) in the NGV exhibition.
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...