ARCA OC OSA
1927 - 1977
Canadian
Snow Drifted into Arctic Rocks
mixed media on board
initialed and on verso titled and dated 1968 on the Isaacs Gallery label
13 x 16 in, 33 x 40.6 cm
Estimate: $25,000 - $35,000 CAD
Sold for: $23,009
Preview at: Heffel Ottawa
PROVENANCE
The Isaacs Gallery Ltd., Toronto
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, 1978
Private Collection, British Columbia
LITERATURE
Joan Murray and William Kurelek, Kurelek’s Vision of Canada, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 1983, page 75
EXHIBITED
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, William Kurelek: A Point of View, Cape Dorset, Baffin Island, Northwest Territories, 1969
Regarding the time he spent working in the Canadian Arctic, William Kurelek said: “The first problem was painting in the sun. It’s hard to paint the sun, specially here…The glare is so strong, all the landscape—sky, as well as snowhills—are a blinding white and if I look through sunglasses the elements regain their distinction but then the colour values are knocked askew.” Kurelek’s words describe the difficulty of capturing the essence and feel of this all-white landscape. In this particular work, he has solved the problem skilfully by placing a bright orange mitten on the hillside in contrast. The footprints, pressed deeply into the drifted snow, the brilliant spot of colour at the centre of the scene, and the inspired addition of what may be Kurelek’s own shadow cast on the snow allow “the elements [to] regain their distinction” against the subtle varieties of white and blue that his keenly observant artist’s eye wished to accurately capture.
Estimate: $25,000 - $35,000 CAD
All prices are in Canadian Dollars
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