Once the painter was making signs and symbols for people to live by: now he makes things to hang on walls at exhibitions...
The New Zealand painter Colin McCahon wrote these words in 1972 and they resonate today. McCahon wanted art to possess the moral force and spiritual urgency that he admired in the historical art of churches. But he also knew that modern artists had to confront new doubts and uncertainties. In the twentieth century, could art still offer signs and symbols to live by?