How To Paint A Nude – Sam Mahon

A local artist and a Belaruisan refugee meet regularly at a Christchurch cafe to discuss life, art and politics.

A priest once told me that we fall in love with people with whom we have wounds in common, that in caring for them we’re really nurturing ourselves […] I have often wondered if my respect for Gregor was this narcissistically simple. I like to think it was the other way round, that he saw the gaps in me and sought to fill them with his excess of optimism.

RACHEL
● To truly form an opinion on this book I feel it is important to know a bit about the author. Sam Mahon is a sculptor and visual artist who has been creating works for more than 50 years. This is his fourth book, one in which he has centred on himself.

Set in pre-earthquake Christchurch, the novel follows an artist named Sambo (Mahon) who meets regularly with a new acquaintance at a café to exchange snippets of their life stories. The companion is fellow artist Gregor Kerensky, a Belarusian refugee who has relocated to New Zealand. Sambo says that these meetings “helped me rediscover to some extent my purpose and intent.”

The book is illustrated with Mahon’s own pencil portraits, and the cover artwork is attributed to the fictional Gregor Kerensky.

The narratives primarily explore the role of art and its place in everyday life, moving into discussions of art as political and its potential for activism. There are recognisable moments from Mahon’s own life, including sculpting a Government Minister with his pants down out of cow dung, suggesting many/all of Sambo’s actions and thoughts are autobiographical. Though many artists, works, movements and moments of significance are referenced it doesn’t feel like a universal view of the New Zealand art scene, rather a distinct and individual perspective.

While the book is well-written I found it a bit pretentious, deviating away from fiction and into a catalogue of the author’s artistic achievements and political interventions. Rather than inviting me into the story, it left me feeling like I was being asked to admire Mahon’s legacy. I also did not like his disparaging comments about women. Imo 1985 by Dominic Hoey would have been a more deserving shortlistee.

Published 2025
Ugly Hill Press