COLIN McCAHON’S PICTURES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 462, 30 April 1948, Page 5

COLIN McCAHON’S PICTURES

Sir,-"Artist" (Dunedin) would have enlightened us and given us to believe in his own judgment had he been able to question J.C.B.’s estimate of McCahon’s paintings in the same rational way as the original article Was written. In all aesthetic judgments personal and objective standards intermingle in a curious and sometimes contradictory manner. Thus men who were once honoured retire to the history books,. and some neglected for centuries emerge because a whole age is sympathetic to their feelings. How often does one hear of Delacroix or of Vasari except in regard to their influence or historical importance? On. the other hand the brilliance of Vermeer did not save his 40 or 50 canvases from being confused with works of others, while Grunewald, who painted very little, has consistently held his place. "Artist’s" rhetorical questions only prove that his own ideas about art are radically different from those of J.C.B. J-C.B. has assumed that "strength" and "experiment" are important. The assumption is not unwarranted when one considers that for decades these words have been used in connection with paintings. It should not be necessary for a critic

to return to,the origim of these words to explain their validity. I refer "Artist" to Roger Fry’s essay on Aubrey Beardsley (Vision and Design-Penguin) for a clear understanding. Beardsley was a niggling and therefore weak designer. Without experiment art becomes repetitive and finally ceases to be worthy of the name. An artist without something new to communicate is a contradiction in terms. But a new vision implies some kind of new arrangement of the colour and form in paintings. Consider the implications of the static art of the Nile Valley compared with the variety, novelty, freshness and importance for us of the art of Europe since the year one. Concretely the value of those many centuries in Egypt may be compressed into _ a single volume, but many volumes of reproductions are necessary before the glory of Europe is spilled at our feet.

JOHN

SUMMERS

(New Brighton).