Sold for: $18,750

PROVENANCE
Estate of the Artist
Acquired from the above by the present Private Collection, Ontario

When Harold Town began to participate in group exhibitions in the mid-1940s, those venues were among the few available to Toronto artists of his generation, particularly those who were starting to be influenced by the non-figurative art movements of the post-war period. Not until 1954 did Town have his first solo exhibition, at Douglas Duncan’s Picture Loan Society. Duncan’s instinctive enthusiasm for Town’s talents as a printmaker led to that association and the artist’s earliest significant recognition, including a two-person show with Paul-Émile Borduas at Gallery Arthur Tooth & Sons, in London. By the time Blue Dot was created in 1958, Town was regarded as an abstract painter to be reckoned with, and this painting stands out as a more playful image than most. It draws on a cooler, less primary colour palette and the elegant graphic inventiveness of his prodigious body of drawings and etchings – in particular, the outstanding single autographic prints that brought him his first serious appreciation from both critics and collectors. Town’s skilful and prodigious output of fine works of art in a wide range of media continues to offer the viewer delightful surprises, as exemplified by Blue Dot.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars