This book was suggested by the McCahon House Trust which has overseen the restoration and preservation of the house in French Bay where McCahon and his family lived in the 1950s. With the house restored and an associated artist's residency now established, this book gives a comprehensive overview of this crucial period in the work of New Zealand's greatest painter. Six chapters with accompanying black and white images cover McCahon's job at the Auckland City Art Gallery, the Titirangi house and setting, the changes in his art practice and the trip to the US in 1958 which had such an amazing and immediate effect on his subsequent paintings. The text is followed by reproductions of 80 of the most important paintings of the period, which include images of French Bay and of the kauri bush near his house.

Author Biography

PETER SIMPSON is an associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Auckland and has written several books and curated several exhibitions on the work of Colin McCahon including one at Lopdell House which marked the completion of the restoration project.