Sold for: $7,500

PROVENANCE
Collection of the Artist
Estate of the Artist
Private Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE
Marc Mayer and Sarah Stanners, Jack Bush, National Gallery of Canada, 2014, page 258

This on-site oil sketch by Jack Bush, one of abstract painting’s leading practitioners, shows an artist on the cusp of a crucial breakthrough. At this point in his life and career, Bush was a father of three and a newly elected member of the Canadian Group of Painters. He was also engaged as cofounder of the commercial art firm Wookey, Winter and Bush with fellow artists William Winter and Leslie Wookey, producing ads and illustrations for publications such as Saturday Night magazine. Crucially, however, Bush had recently been referred by his family doctor to psychiatrist Dr. J. Allen Walters for treatment of his anxiety. Dr. Walters suggested Bush explore forms of therapy in his art practice, with Bush noting in his journal: “Experimental work suggested by Dr. Allan Walters, and commenced in Sept. 1947. The idea being to paint freely the inner feelings + moods.” Produced approximately one month later, In the Afternoon seems to be Bush’s nascent exploration of these concepts. The free and joyful palette and the architectural forms unmoored from representation, show an artist at the outset of genuine discovery.

The above essay was provided by Heffel. We thank Dr. Sarah Stanners for her assistance with researching this work.

This work will be included in Dr. Sarah Stanners’s forthcoming Jack Bush Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonné.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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