The Waitakere City Council is preserving a 'rotten old bach,' reports DEAN AUSTEN.
AUCKLAND - A 60-year-old cottage in Titirangi that was once home to artist Colin McCahon is to be preserved for future generations of artists.
The Waitakere City Council has agreed to buy the property, where McCahon lived with his
wife and four children from 1953 to 1959. Long term, it is planned to turn it into a space for artists-in-residence.
But while the art community has applauded the move, McCahon's son William, who was 10 when the family shifted into the Otitori Bay Rd house, described it as "a rotten old bach that should be bulldozed."
"[The bach] isn't really about Colin. His art of the area is all you need. You don't have to tie it to a spot and I think they're foolish to try."
Mr McCahon remembers the bach as sunless, cramped, primitive and prone to mould in the winter. He also said his father had only a brief history with the place.
"His first major works started coming out in 1959. You could almost say that Titirangi isn't significant."
Mayor Bob Harvey said he appreciated that the McCahon family had their own views on the cottage based on their experiences there.
"But there is huge enthusiasm for this project in the art world ... and it's seen, apart from the paintings, as a tangible link with arguably one of New Zealand's greatest artists."
Acquiring the house has been a long-term council aim and in 1997 it bought a neighbouring section to ensure that the environment McCahon painted - and painted in - stayed as it was.
It is planned that an independent trust of art patrons and professionals will buy the property from the council in the next 12 months and manage it as part of an artists-in-residence programme.
The Waitakere MP and Minister of Cultural Affairs, Marie Hasler, congratulated the council on its move, which she said would enhance West Auckland's reputation as the inspiration for many New Zealand artists.
The cottage is already listed as a category two building by the Historic Places Trust and a major heritage site by the Waitakere council's district plan.
