McCarten joins local colour

Auckland-born Donald McCarten is a featured artist in the upcoming ColorField.remix event in Washington D.C. The four-month event celebrates the American capital’s influential 1950s/1960s Color Field visual art movement, of which McCarten was a pivotal member. “This is an exciting opportunity to examine and celebrate Washington DC’s artistic history, its international context and the impact of Color Field painting,” said Judy A. Greenberg, director of The Kreeger  Museum. “The number of organizations participating in this celebration is evidence of how profoundly the Color Field movement permeated the consciousness of Washington’s cultural life in its time, and how it continues to sustain and inspire artists today.” Donald McCarten, who died in 2003, studied at Auckland’s Elam School of Art and the Central School of Art in London. He spent time painting in Australia, England, Europe and South Africa before immigrating to the US in 1958. His boldly coloured works, frequently on abstract-shaped canvasses, were exhibited alongside those by Color Field contemporaries Jacob Kainen, Howard Mehring, William de Looper, Paul Reed and Gene Davis. ColorField.remix runs from April 1-July 28.