Sold for: $31,250

PROVENANCE
The family of the Artist, California
Sold sale of Canadian Post-War & Contemporary Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 28, 2014, lot 17
Private Collection, Victoria

LITERATURE
Adele Freedman, Gershon Iskowitz: Painter of Light, 1982, pages 5 and 12

In works such as this, Gershon Iskowitz transformed his impressions of the land into brilliant patches of colour in abstract paintings that were challenging to categorize. As Adele Freedman wrote, “In a single decade, the seventies, reviewers called him a colour-field painter, an impressionist, and an abstract expressionist.” However, Iskowitz refuted such classifications, stating, “I don’t believe any of it…I just paint. I paint what I know. I always try to get endless spaces that won’t block the eye looking through, so that you wonder what is happening behind the paint. Art is like a mystery.” In the 1970s, Iskowitz continued to evolve, and in 1976, the year this animated painting was produced, he simplified his paintings further. In contrast to Summer from 1972, lot 29 in this sale, which is a flurry of marks, he reduced the dabs and patches of paint on his surface, allowing more space around them. His pale blue background radiates light, and pushes forward the deep blue and bright orange patches, which dance up to the surface. In Untitled, Iskowitz’s vibrant vision of colour and space electrifies the eye.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars