Open AccessA Family Plot
Author(s) -
Martin Edmond
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of new zealand studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.102
0eISSN - 2324-3740
pISSN - 1176-306X
DOI - 10.26686/jnzs.v0ins31.6683
Subject(s) - narrative , plot (graphics) , visitor pattern , biography , painting , sociology , project commissioning , publishing , history , aesthetics , art , art history , literature , computer science , statistics , mathematics , programming language
This essay begins with an account of the circumstances which led to my parents owning a Colin and Anne McCahon children’s painting. Then it expands upon certain biographical questions raised (or not raised) in my 2011 book Dark Night: Walking with McCahon. I describe the work I did in 2018 with Finn McCahon-Jones, Colin’s grandson, on the Visitor Narrative for the McCahon House Trust; and conclude with some thoughts upon the limitations of biography as a genre. Implicit in the discussion is a comparison, hopefully unforced, between my own family and that of the McCahons.