In 1978, at the height of his career, Colin McCahon was shaken by a series of ignorant attacks on his work and artistic integrity after the New Zealand Government presented his large Victory Over Death 2 to the Australian Government. The media storm that followed, the likes of which we have never seen before in this country, was unprecedented. After this negative critique, McCahon took refuge in his studio, producing a substantial set of small paintings called Truth from the King Country: Load Bearing Structures. “The title instantly locates the image in the central North Island. For New Zealanders familiar with the main Auckland-Wellington railway line, the King Country is renowned for the Mangaweka Viaduct, which straddles one of the several deep river gorges that cut through the area. Thus McCahon’s double metaphor – the ‘T’ as both Tau Cross and struts and girders – was instantly recognisable. In some of the images, the structure seems light and insubstantial – reliant more on faith than construction – whilst in others it stands solid, steadfast in the landscape.”1 In each work, a lone T stands centre stage in the foreground of the landscape. McCahon has made subtle variations for each canvas, from the tonal range, through to the varying placement and thickness of the T. The metaphoric meaning of the T within the series has a multitude of interpretations relating to McCahon’s ongoing spiritual journey. Used previously in variant forms as a Tau cross, an unconventional crucifix, it relates to the title and to the correlation of finding a ‘Truth’ within the landscape. EMMA FOX 1 M. Bloem and M. Browne, Colin McCahon - A Question of Faith, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam/Craig Potton Publishing, 2002, p.229