Sold for: $325,250

PROVENANCE
James Rottman Fine Art, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE
The Non-Figurative Artists' Association of Montreal, National Gallery of Canada, 1960, listed

EXHIBITED
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, The Non-Figurative Artists' Association of Montreal, September 1, 1960 - April 15, 1961, traveling to the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina; Banff School of Fine Arts; Edmonton Art Gallery, and University of Alberta, Calgary, catalogue #14

Encouraged by Paul-Émile Borduas’s belief in self-discovery as a productive force, Rita Letendre’s practice from the mid-1950s was defined by rapid iteration and frequent shifts in style and construction. The pictorial approach of the previous generation—anchored figure / ground structures, dense gridded geometries, an opacity of colour—was soon discarded, as she sought freer forms of expression and spiritual energy. Her paintings would move towards a more organic sensibility, characterized by ever-thickening impasto, lyrical gesture and explosive illumination. As her practice developed, the lessons of each canvas would be applied to the next: her works would become bolder and more expressionistic, as she strove to synthesize the act of painting with freedom, intuition and emotive power.

The period at the end of the 1950s would prove to be the most productive of Letendre’s time in Montreal, when she started to consolidate the lessons of her painting into a holistic language of exuberant abstraction that was unmistakably her own. During this period she introduced light more forcefully in her canvases, exploding outwards in volcanic flares or splintering through the impastoed surface with expressive luminosity. This grounding in the experiential and emotional qualities found at the intersections of colour, movement and light would prove key to Letendre’s explorations of self-discovery. These aspects would continue to be defining qualities of her painting even as the formal elements would shift to hard-edged lozenges of the late 1960s through to the gestural storms of pigment in her later canvases.

Reflet d’avril was produced during this crucial and transformative moment. Here, a deepened black mass rumbles through a grey-green field. A central white band sears across with fiery brightness, while a further fleck of white glances off the topmost edge. Glints of brighter oranges and yellows flash through the white scar and flicker underneath the darker ground, hinting at the primordial cosmic sparks of the big bang—or the gleams of early sunlight reflecting through a twilight dawn. Indeed, the title suggests that these creationary impulses were front of mind for Letendre, recalling the bursts of growth and colour to be seen in the still-brisk early days of April. Certainly, the title reflects a broader interest by Letendre in depicting the rhythms of nature and the forces that act in it. Like the exceptional Reflet d’Eden (sold by Heffel June 1, 2022, private collection) or the monumental Victoire (collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario), both painted the year after this canvas, the title is not descriptive so much as suggestive of the turbulent energies and raw emotive power that saturate and surge out of the gestural depths.

This work was one of two canvases by Letendre included in the 1960 – 1961 exhibition of the Non-Figurative Artists’ Association of Montreal organized by the National Gallery of Canada. The NFAAM, of which Letendre was a founding member, was formed in 1956 to promote and exhibit a loose group of Automatists, Plasticiens, and other abstractionists painting in Montreal and to ensure the equality of non-figurative painting within the city’s vibrant art scene. This long-awaited touring exhibition would be the last show of the NFAAM, who would disband in 1961. As we can see in this work, by this time there was less of a need for such a group to advocate for abstract painting, with the maturation of the city’s post-Borduas artists and the strength of their output. Springing forth from this fertile environment and produced during a decisive moment in Letendre's career, Reflet d’avril is a singular example of an artist working at the height of her painterly skill.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars