SAM CAIRNCROSS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 517, 20 May 1949, Page 5

SAM CAIRNCROSS

Sir,-Your correspondent D, J. Ramage can be quite sure that Sam Cairncross hasn’t a swollen head. He impresses me as a modest man, aware that an aftist learns to the end of his creative life, and prepared to admit that some of his work is still experimental. We must give credit to his energy and his willingness to forget the fleshpots for the sake of a vision which may or may not be attainable. Recently he was at the East Cape working on any subject-marine, landscape, or Maori figure. There is nothing of the week-end dabbler about this man and still less is there anything of the timidity about financial things that handicap some people. Cairncross paints and lets money come second. My namesake "Vincent" will be interested to learn that Cairncross originally did set up his canvas to paint an ox, but when he saw the size of a carcase he realised he had underestimated badly, and so he did the sheep. He painted solidly eight hours a day for nearly a week at the Wellington abattoirs, where meat workers who came to scoff remained to admire. a "Vincent" appears to doubt the authenticity of Cairncross’s approach to the subject "On the Hooks." I'll admit freely that Rembrandt is Sam’s God (not ‘a bad one at that). Incidentally, if you want to ruffle Cairncross you can compare his work to Van Gogh-he dislikes him. You can hardly convict Cairncross of some form of piracy because he also does a flayed carcase hanging from a hook. Quite a few Dutch masters have done raw meat too, just as dozens did dead ducks hanging and lying, plucked and unplucked. Any -true artist could find considerable beauty in a butcher’s shop. Look at the flesh colourings and the gradations in the mottled fat next time you go past one. You'll see a challenge to any painter.

D. McD.

VINCENT

(Wellington).