Monday, July 25, 2016

Size matters

OK, we’ve done this sort of thing before but this is a great one: Colin McCahon’s Victory over death squeezed into $1.85 million apartment kitted out for Auckland’s ‘empty nesters’. Forget for a moment that the McCahon family owns the copyright on this painting and that it was a gift to Australia from the people of New Zealand, you’ve got to raise an eyebrow at the size thing. You’d think for just South of two million you could expect the scale of the art to work with the size of the room and furnishings. But hang on a minute maybe given that price it is in scale. So that makes the couch around 10 meters wide with each cushion coming in at 3.3 meters square. Makes sense. And while it’s a plus to see McCahon recognized as the million dollar man (there are two other works by McCahon pasted onto the ‘walls’ of this apartment) it’s ironic that the whole engorged affair looks out over Grey Lynn, the suburb where the artist lived in a smallish villa in Crummer Road. 
(...and thanks to you M)