A Long Line of Attention – Colin McCahon & Aida Tomescu

Not in a million years could I have predicted a phenomenon like McCahon. In fact, I went to the Ivan Dougherty show on its last day, at the insistence of my friends. I went with zero expectations and that visit changed everything.Finally, there was a painter, a near contemporary, (he passed two or so years earlier) who did everything I wanted painting to do, aimed at profound content, connected everything I was drawn to. Aida Tomescu, April 2026

Aida Tomescu has an ecumenical faith in the capacity of art, literature and music to alter our lived experience. Her devotion to painting is unquestioned but so too is her faith in Dostoevsky, Celan, in Shostakovich. These shared convictions demonstrate an uncommon sensibility, one that celebrates the metaphysical, the abstract and the profound and she was to find this in the work of Colin McCahon more than thirty years ago.

Aida speaks about McCahon with the same thrill and reverence that she speaks of Titian and Giotto, of Guston & Cezanne. What they hold is an intellectual weight and a profound content freed of illustration and description. This capacity to hold a long thread of attention between two points is fundamental to the making of good art, music and literature. 

Colin McCahon is Tomescu’s antipodean window, one she didn’t expect to see through let alone open for us all.