LOT 014

AANFM RCA
1923 - 1999
Canadian

Les contes arabes #3
oil on canvas
signed and dated 1964 and on verso signed, titled, dated and stamped Gallery Moos, 138 Yorkville Avenue, Toronto
20 1/8 x 18 1/8 in, 51.1 x 46 cm

Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000 CAD

Sold for: $49,250

Preview at:

PROVENANCE
Gallery Moos Ltd., Toronto, 1964
Private Collection, Ontario
Post-War & Contemporary Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 24, 2017, lot 14
Acquired from the above by the present Private Collection, Calgary

LITERATURE
Roald Nasgaard, Abstract Painting in Canada, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 2007, page 177


Les contes arabes #3 displays the complexity and sophistication of Jean McEwen’s brushwork and his distinctive approach to colour. The artist sets layer upon layer of lustrous oil paint all over the canvas, building up a mottled surface of delicate tonal variation. Roald Nasgaard wrote: “His continuous coloured textures are built out of strata of superimposed paint layers, sometimes as many as a dozen. Their ever more variegated hues and tones lie in ambiguous depths, sometimes opaque and other times transparent and luminous.” Here, different cells of marbled colours are arranged in a cruciform. The central vertical poppy-red, saffron-yellow and brown column is bordered by L shapes of the same palette. The four corners of the canvas are accentuated by blue and mustard squares. Each cell is delineated by glossy black lines and two horizontal bands, which appear from the underlayers of the work. With its rich medley of colour and McEwen’s unique paint-handling technique, this canvas is intensely vibrant; each form is imbued with its own texture, resulting in an elaborate tapestry.


Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000 CAD

All prices are in Canadian Dollars


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