No more masking tape

Necessary Protection

Colin McCahon at the Govett-Brewster Gallery

Colin McCahon's latest exhibition of paintings, sponsored by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, is showing at the National Gallery until the 26th of March. It takes its name from a series of four works, begun in 1971. These paintings are built around one of McCahon's most common symbols—the cliffs at Muriwai Beach which are also the 'T' of the Tau cross, the 'I' of the sky, the 'constant flow of light into a dark landscape'. The "Necessary Protection" is from . . . what you/he fears most: nuclear war, violence as a response to social problems (Am I Scared), near extinction of whales, pollution of our beaches. . .

The Parihaka Triptych is painted on a canvas which is shaped in the form of the Tau cross. The central part describes Te Whiti and Toru, emphasising the importance of passive resistance (necessary protection) in response to Pakeha aggression from both sides: the religious side e.g. missionaries/the perfect cross and 'ornament of the pakeha'; and the military side.

The 'Walk With Me' series is divided into fourteen sections; fourteen days/times/ places. We walk with McCahon, the length of the painting, and we feel the impressiveness and vastness of the sea and sky, the need to protect it from the power we have to destroy it. The sky-father and the earth mother (Rangi and Papa) are separated by the line of the sea.

The 'Jump' series is about the metaphorical jump: from life to death/over barriers and hurdles in one's own life. The jump takes place in the gap between the cliffs at Muriwai, where the light falls constantly. Here is the 'other side', the contrast or opposition which is always present in McCahon's work: black/white, falling/escaping, sea/sky, male/female, Maori/ Pakeha, yin/yang.

The dotted line which marks the jump appears again in the 'Shining Cuckoo', to represent the bird's footprints in the sand. The footprints (natural) and the words Tuia Tui (threading, joining) are set in the contrast to large, bold numerals of the Pakeha (culture) world, and its carefully defined categories. The cuckoo walks off the end of the canvas oblivious. . .

McCahon's symbols have become so refined and abstracted that they are only understood in the context of all his work since 1958. Each new work relies on the last and is developed from the last, carrying on what is now the McCahon tradition. Consequently, McCahon is reaching fewer people and mostly those who are part of an elite in the Art world, experts in their field.

The gap between the art which hangs in galleries and the real world is widening; so much so that any contact is bewildering or unpleasant for both sides. "We are were met by friends and drank wine all day to forget the aesthetic horror of Karangahape Road ... I fled North in memory and painted the 'Northland Panels'." (McCahon, 1972)

McCahon has attempted to bridge the gap by his use of Polynesian languages, and the events which we read about in newspapers every day. Yet he has to flee from the aesthetic horror of Karangahape Road, away North with his canvasses and symbols. Faced with the reality of communicating with that world, he shies away.

He has also said: "As a painter, how do you get around either a Michelangelo or a Mondrian. It seems that the only way is not more masking-tape but more involvement in the human situation."

While McCahon is prepared to call himself a painter, use dealer-galleries to show and sell his work for huge sums of money, it seems he will not be able to come to terms with this discrepancy.

B. Thomas and S. Edmond

Artist's co-op

Artists and interested persons are invited to attend a public meeting to discuss the setting up of a proposed artists' co-operative and work/exhibition space in Wellington—

730 p.m., Tuesday 21 March at the National Museum [unclear: Theatrete]

The co-op is envisaged as a general support organisation for all artists from Wellington or elsewhere and one of its main objectives will be to work toward the provision and maintenance of a suitable working and exhibition space for artists.