The Architect and the Artists

Book excerpt: A beautiful and important book about the remarkable collaboration between the modernist architect James Hackshaw (a member of the famous Group Architects), the painter Colin McCahon and the then young sculptor Paul Dibble on twelve New Zealand buildings -- from churches to houses. Drawing on interviews with James Hackshaw before his death and on the McCahon archives, this book brings into the light a body of work and a collaboration that has been little known or examined, even by old McCahon hands. Richly illustrated with Hackshaw's plans, McCahon's drawings, letters and journal entries, and contemporary images of the surviving buildings and artworks, expert essays by Peter Simpson, Julia Gatley, Christopher Dudman, Peter Shaw and Alexa Johnston complete the package.