The Late Painter
Auckland University Press, Auckland 2020
MICHAEL DUNN
Colin McCahon: Is This the Promised Land?, the second volume of Peter Simpson’s magisterial study of the artist’s painting and life, picks up where the first volume ends and deals chronologically with the years from 1960 to 1987 when he died. But, as Simpson makes clear, McCahon ceased to paint some time before his death.
His last years and afterlife from 1987 to 2019 are dealt with in an important epilogue that gives a full account of his status as a painter and of his public recognition since his death. Simpson tells us that the artist had cognitive impairment as early as 1980, telling his dealer Peter McLeavey: ‘I just can’t write letters anymore―they don’t seem to happen somehow.’ About 1982 his letters stopped altogether and his wife, Anne, wrote at times on his behalf. His memory failure and alcoholism took a heavy toll.
She wrote in 1983 to Patricia France:
‘I am snatching this moment while Colin goes for his wine to write this.’ McCahon was diagnosed with Korsakoff’s syndrome which causes brain damage and eventually died of bronchopneumonia in May 1987.
His final painting, (c.1982/83), was found upside down on the floor of his Crummer Road studio after his death.
