
Colin McCahon: Is This the Promised Land?
Vol.2 1960-1987
Peter Simpson(Author)
Auckland University Press
Published on 11. June 2020
Book
Hardback
400 pages
978-1-86940-908-1 (ISBN)
Description
Colin McCahon (1919-1987) was New Zealand's greatest twentieth-century artist. Through landscapes, biblical paintings and abstraction, the introduction of words and Maori motifs, McCahon's work came to define a distinctly New Zealand modernist idiom. Collected and exhibited extensively in Australasia and Europe, McCahon's work has not been assessed as a whole for thirty-five years.
In this richly illustrated two-volume work, written in an accessible style and published to coincide with the centenary of Colin McCahon's birth, leading McCahon scholar, writer and curator Dr Peter Simpson chronicles the evolution of the artist's work over McCahon's entire forty-five-year career.
Simpson has enjoyed unprecedented access to McCahon's extensive correspondence with friends, family, dealers, patrons and others. This material enables us to begin to understand McCahon's work as the artist himself conceived it. Each volume includes over three-hundred illustrations in colour, with a generous selection of reproductions of McCahon's work (many never previously published), plus photographs, catalogue covers, facsimiles and other illustrative material.
These books will be the definitive work on New Zealand's leading artist for many years to come.
In this richly illustrated two-volume work, written in an accessible style and published to coincide with the centenary of Colin McCahon's birth, leading McCahon scholar, writer and curator Dr Peter Simpson chronicles the evolution of the artist's work over McCahon's entire forty-five-year career.
Simpson has enjoyed unprecedented access to McCahon's extensive correspondence with friends, family, dealers, patrons and others. This material enables us to begin to understand McCahon's work as the artist himself conceived it. Each volume includes over three-hundred illustrations in colour, with a generous selection of reproductions of McCahon's work (many never previously published), plus photographs, catalogue covers, facsimiles and other illustrative material.
These books will be the definitive work on New Zealand's leading artist for many years to come.
Reviews / Votes
'Colin McCahon: There is Only One Direction. Vol 1. 1919-1959 belongs in every New Zealand home. With more than 300 illustrations, it is an alluring and profound coffee-table book. But for its real readers, it will be a wonderfully responsive and permanent triumph.' - David Herkt, Weekend Herald, 'This is an excellent, scrupulously annotated and engagingly written book ... and the perfect gift for that loner at the cocktail party nursing a drink after, even if only in jest, having said Colin McCahon was overrated.' - Graham Reid, ElsewhereMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Auckland
New Zealand
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
400
Dimensions
Height: 292 mm
Width: 244 mm
Thickness: 41 mm
Weight
2449 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-86940-908-1 (9781869409081)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
04/2020
Auckland University Press
€58.99
Available for download
Person
Peter Simpson is a former associate professor of English at the University of Auckland. He is the author of numerous critically acclaimed books including Colin McCahon: The Titirangi Years, 1953-1959 (AUP, 2007) and Bloomsbury South: The Arts in Christchurch 1933-1953 (AUP, 2016). He has also curated three significant exhibitions of McCahon's work. He received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement (non-fiction) in 2017.
Content
INTRODUCTION
1 NEWTON I, 1960-64
2 NEWTON II, 1965-69
3 MURIWAI I, 1970-72
4 MURIWAI II, 1973-74
5 MURIWAI III, 1975-76
6 GREY LYNN I, 1977-79
7 GREY LYNN II, 1979-83
EPILOGUE
LIST OF ARTWORKS
EXHIBITION RECORD, 1960-2018
NOTES
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
1 NEWTON I, 1960-64
2 NEWTON II, 1965-69
3 MURIWAI I, 1970-72
4 MURIWAI II, 1973-74
5 MURIWAI III, 1975-76
6 GREY LYNN I, 1977-79
7 GREY LYNN II, 1979-83
EPILOGUE
LIST OF ARTWORKS
EXHIBITION RECORD, 1960-2018
NOTES
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX