Elias triptych, 1959

Elias triptych

1: McCahon Aug. 59 (brushpoint, vertical edge, b.r.); [illegible numeral] SEAL THE STONE SET A WATCH / AUG '59 / LEFT PANEL / ELIAS TRIPTYCH (on reverse, not sighted)
2: McCahon 10-2-59 (brushpoint, b.l.)
3: McCahon Aug. 28. '59 (brushpoint, b.c.)

1: Sir, we remember
that that deceiver
said. While he
was yet alive.
After 3 days
I will rise again
seal the stone
set a watch.

3: Then he opened
Their understand
-ing
that they might
understand

Why
are you
troubled and
why do
thoughts arise
in your
hearts.

THUS
IT IS
WRITTEN.
and thus it
behoved Christ
to suffer and to
arise from
the dead

1959 Colin McCahon. Recent Paintings, November 1958 - August 1959
Gallery 91
Christchurch
6/10/1959 - 18/10/1959

1960 Contemporary New Zealand Painting and Sculpture [1960]
Auckland City Art Gallery
Auckland
30/3/1960 - 24/4/1960

1962 Commonwealth Art Today
Commonwealth Institute
London
7/11/1962 - 13/1/1963

1968 Colin McCahon
Bonython Art Gallery
Sydney
1/7/1968 - 17/7/1968

1969 McCahon's McCahon's 1943-1963
Moller's Gallery
Auckland
10/3/1969 - 28/3/1969

1972 Colin McCahon: A Survey Exhibition
Auckland City Art Gallery
Auckland
7/3/1972 - 23/4/1972

1984 I will need words: Colin McCahon's Word and Number Paintings
Power Gallery of Contemporary Art, University of Sydney
Sydney
11/4/1984 - 17/6/1984

1988 Colin McCahon: Gates and Journeys
Auckland City Art Gallery
Auckland
11/11/1988 - 26/2/1989

1996 The World Over. Art in the Age of Globalisation. Under Capricorn.
City Gallery Wellington
Wellington
6/6/1996 - 18/8/1996

1999 Toi Toi Toi: Drei Kunstlergenerationen aux Nueseeland
Museum Fridericianum
Kassel
23/1/1999 - 5/4/1999

2001 He Kupu Noatu: Paintings by Colin McCahon
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Auckland
2/5/2001 - 19/8/2001

2006 Colin McCahon: The Titirangi Years: 1953-1959
Lopdell House
Auckland
25/8/2006 - 8/10/2006

2014 Modern Paints Aotearoa
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Auckland
5/4/2014 - 21/8/2014

2019 A Place to Paint: Colin McCahon in Auckland
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Auckland
10/8/2019 - 27/1/2020

The Elias triptych was originally exhibited as three separate works. The Biblical texts quoted in the panels are from Matthew 27:63 and Luke 24:38, 24:45, and 24:46; also The Bible as designed to be read as Literature, by Ernest Sutherland Bates.