Colin McCahon’s house and its colours: A glimpse of New Zealand beyond its colonial past
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Authors
Premier, A.
Rennie, Julian
Rennie, Julian
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Grantor
Date
2022-06
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Type
Conference Contribution - Paper in Published Proceedings
Ngā Upoko Tukutuku (Māori subject headings)
Keyword
McCahon, Colin (1919-1987)
Titirangi (Auckland, N.Z.)
Auckland (N.Z.)
New Zealand
domestic architecture
painting
colour palette
colour conservation
Titirangi (Auckland, N.Z.)
Auckland (N.Z.)
New Zealand
domestic architecture
painting
colour palette
colour conservation
ANZSRC Field of Research Code (2020)
Citation
Premier, & A. & Rennie, J.J., (2022, June 13-16). Colin McCahon’s house and its colours: A glimpse of New Zealand beyond its colonial past. In Proceedings of the International Colour Association (AIC) (2022), Sensing Colour, 280-287. https://aic-color.org/resources/Documents/AIC2022-Conference_Proceedings.pdf
Abstract
Colin McCahon’s Titirangi house nestled Kauri forest was not only a tiny and humble house for his wife and 4 children for the years of 1953-60. But it was the birth place of some beautiful paintings and (what turned out to be) culturally important images for New Zealand emerging from its Colonial past. This period of Colin’s work was totally focussed on producing warm colourful images, (as opposed to the Black paintings with white lettering of his later years). The family’s poverty clearly expressed by the small bedrooms given over to the children whilst the parents slept in bunks under the house in a cave like space exposed directly to the damp bush and wet weather. Yet the joyous Northland Panels were paint on the upper deck, the same deck used for parties with friends and students. This setting of house in the bush: yin to yang, colour of nature/material poverty, family nest/image making, making do/timeless nuances brought forth a unique an and primal expression of what colours that are primal road makers for establishing who we were. The Northland Panels evoke a spirit of place seems that many Kiwis can easily relate to. The colours of those paintings are reflected in the surfaces of his humble house which, at the same time, seems to embrace the colours of the surrounding environment. See for example, the painting ‘Manuka and Red Clay Landscape’. However, as any artist knows, a human artefact must be distinguishable from nature, hence the reddish colour of the façade. The contrast is perfect and reflects modern colour theories available at that time (for example, those developed within the Bauhaus School). The research was carried out in two directions following a methodology based on literature review and field study. The literature review helped contextualising the colour design of the house in that period of McCahon’s artistic production. The analysis of the house colour palette, achieved through a field study based on the NCS colour system (using the Colourpin tool), helped building a series of colour schemes that can easily be reproduced in the future. Colour codes will be represented following the NCS 1950 chart and equivalent/analogue Hex RGB values. These can be useful for the conservation of this small but important evidence of New Zealand’s 20th Century post-colonial art.
This paper will unpack the colours of this house (which still stands today), the house with its pull out drawers, opening of cupboard’s doors to expose glimpses of joyous colour, and other “built-in” colour influences that (in the midst of a Covid-19 ravaged world) are sensed haptically “being here”. The goal is to understand how the Artist transferred his colour palette (and the colours of local nature) into the design of the house, blending his daily life with the vividness of his art. Colour combinations will be compared with colour theories and architectural colour palettes available at that time (for example: J. Albers; J. Itten; but also Le Corbusier and F.L. Wright). The final aim is to build a series of colour palettes (one per each part of the house) that can be useful to extend our knowledge on this important artefact and for its future conservation.
Publisher
International Colour Association (AIC)
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