AANFM AUTO CAS QMG RCA SAAVQ SAPQ
1924 - 2001
Canadian
Sans titre
oil on canvas
signed and dated 1962
63 3/4 x 51 in, 161.9 x 129.5 cm
Estimate: $200,000 - $300,000 CAD
Sold for: $1,801,250
Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave
PROVENANCE
Pierre Roy, Montreal
Private Collection, Toronto
LITERATURE
Herta Wescher, Marcelle Ferron de 1945 à 1970, Musée d'art contemporain, 1970, listed, unpaginated
Monique Crouillère, director, Ferron, Marcelle, National Film Board of Canada, 1989
A.K. Prakash, Independent Spirit, 2008, reproduced page 191
EXHIBITED
Musée d'art contemporain, Montreal, Marcelle Ferron de 1945 à 1970, April 8 - May 31, 1970, catalogue #62
Throughout her career, Marcelle Ferron’s painting was defined by an expressive, exuberant approach to colour and gesture. After meeting Paul-Émile Borduas in 1946, she quickly became a powerful voice in the emerging language of Québécois painterly abstraction. Between 1953 and 1966, Ferron swapped Montreal for Paris, where she rapidly developed her technique and practice. She began to eschew the use of brushes in favour of palette knives. These would frequently be impressive in their own right - Ferron employed a metalsmith to custom build larger-than-normal tools in a variety of widths and lengths, up to a metre long. She also employed what she called “squeegees,” knives with a large blade fixed at a right angle to the handle, which she would use for what she termed “great moments” or “rakings.” She would use these knives and spatulas to create ever larger and more expressive painterly gestures, pulling vibrant hues through white backgrounds to create rich, riotous fields of colour.
As she was limited in resources while in Montreal in the 1940s, the works that Ferron produced were by necessity modest in size, characterized by dense tessellations and subdued earth tones. In Paris, however, Ferron’s canvases were increasingly large, chromatic and dramatic, sometimes reaching monumental scale - such as this impressive example. Her paintings moved away from the compactness of her earlier works and employed a more vibrant, expressive use of colour—at least partially as a response to a European market that demanded it—and, courtesy of a generous patron, she was able to use more expensive pigments. She would grind and mix these pigments herself, binding them with linseed and poppy-seed oils; the latter of these is lighter-coloured and yellows less with age, and is a medium particularly suited for the mixing of whites. Ferron was especially resolute in her use of white in particular, and would frequently return to paintings as they aged (so long as they were still in her possession) in order to re-apply fresh paint over white areas that had become dirtied or yellowed. This ensured that her paintings would continually be revitalized, dynamically refreshed and improved upon, even after the final formal arrangement was broadly settled.
The relentless primacy of white demonstrates its importance in her compositions, functioning as both background and structure for the more chromatic pigments. This is perhaps no more evident than in Sans titre. Here, the central structure is contained by blank spaces at the corners, suggesting the function of white as both background and boundary. Nonetheless, rather than a neutral field, it serves to illuminate the canvas in a vivid brilliance. White streaks through the fierce clash of colours, applied in wide striated bands: oranges, carmines and ochres through to greens and blues. Large patches of brownish blacks recall the earlier influence of Ferron’s mentor, Borduas. The structure is anchored at the bottom by a huge slash of violet, commanding the most visual attention: produced with one wide stroke, this swathe of violet sutures the canvas together, containing the vibrating swoops of colour. Important to this work is its unrelenting size: expanded to monumental scale, the clashing cascades of brush-strokes demand the viewer participate in its uncompromising, tumultuous spontaneity.
Executed in 1962, Sans titre shows Ferron at her most confident, skilful and energetic. During the 1960s, she participated in major group shows, such as at the Louvre in 1960 and the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris in 1962 and 1965, and her work was showcased alongside paintings by Joan Mitchell and Sam Francis. She won the silver medal at the Bienal de São Paulo in 1961, making her the first Québécoise to receive such an international recognition.
Estimate: $200,000 - $300,000 CAD
All prices are in Canadian Dollars
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