Titirangi landscape

Nineteen fifty-four was a significant year for Colin McCahon and his family. He began working full-time at Auckland Art Gallery in February, the same month in which he made this painting after hours at his French Bay home, near the small west Auckland village of Titirangi. The view is based on the artist’s recollections of travelling home after work by bus. Like other paintings, drawings and watercolours dating from this year, there are physical and sensual themes evoked by the bird’s-eye view.

Later in 1954, Colin McCahon made written words a major subject of his paintings. The paintings I AM, 1954 (Hocken Collections, Dunedin) as well as I and THOU, 1954 (Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki) expand on the capital letters TITIRANGI and EVENING in this painting and become the entire subject of the artworks.

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