McCahon's lonely road

By LINDA HERRICK arts editor

City Gallery Wellington director Paula Savage hopes the touring Colin McCahon exhibition will give the artist's "knockers" the opportunity to understand his work - but she's not optimistic.

Colin McCahon: A Question of Faith, which opens to the public tomorrow, is the largest collection of McCahon works to be gathered under one roof and has come from the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

The 78 paintings, which are displayed in chronological order, will travel to Auckland in March before going to Victoria and New South Wales.

"With McCahon, his work has always polarised and divided people, and I'm sure there's all those inevitable knockers and carping whingers waiting for the opportunity to come in and criticise him again," said Savage.

"I thought we had moved on from that in the past 50 years, but there's something about the power of his work that really unsettles people. McCahon did say that he was painting for people yet unborn; are we ready for it now?"

Savage said the exhibition's chronological order offered a rare chance for viewers to follow McCahon's spiritual struggles.

"You look at the end works and it's terrible, he's completely lost his faith in humanity - it's a man in breakdown, in despair."

She said the gallery had worked hard to ensure there was no cover charge to ensure visitors could return as often as they liked.

"McCahon's work is complex and layered, and the more time you spend with the work, the more you see and understand."

She found the continuing attacks on McCahon upsetting. "If McCahon was a sporting hero, he'd be treated as an icon ... Maybe his work will always upset and polarise people, but he's hardly fizzled out, has he?"

A Question of Faith runs at the City Gallery Wellington until March 9.