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LOT 044

CPE OC
1923 - 2008
Canadian

The Link Could End at Any Moment
mixed media on paper
signed and dated 1981 - 1986 and on verso titled on the exhibition label, numbered BG-P-1981-86-01 and stamped Studio Betty Goodwin
36 x 47 3/8 in, 91.4 x 120.3 cm

Estimate: $8,000 - $12,000 CAD

Sold for: $10,000

Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave

PROVENANCE
Collection of the Artist
Estate of the Artist

LITERATURE
Yolande Racine, editor, Betty Goodwin: Works from 1971 to 1987, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1987, page 21, listed pages 118 and 251 and reproduced page 119

EXHIBITED
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Betty Goodwin: Oeuvres de 1971 à 1987 / Works from 1971 to 1987, February 11 - March 27, 1988, traveling in 1987 - 1988 to the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Vancouver Art Gallery; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; and 49th Parallel, Center for Contemporary Canadian Art, New York, catalogue #39


“Drawing is the simplest way of establishing a picture vocabulary because it is an instant personal declaration of what is important and what is not. Drawing is the most unalienated medium. Private, it practically doesn't have an audience in mind, just the artist’s expression.”

- Betty Goodwin

This statement, taken from Betty Goodwin’s July 1981 notebook, reveals her particular interest in drawing. Throughout her entire career, even as she focused on other media such as painting and printmaking, Goodwin never abandoned her drawing practice. Art historian Yolande Racine argues that “it is through drawing that Betty Goodwin best achieves the fragile transposition of the idea to an image.” In The Link Could End at Any Moment, also a phrase from one of her notebooks, her remarkable drawing skills are evident. Here, she drafts a complex architectural structure over two pieces of paper glued together. The left panel overlaps slightly onto the right one, thus creating a small shift in the composition. Her energetic and visceral brushwork imbues the work with a sense of urgency, and the diaphanous washes in varying shades of grey showcase the full range of her brushwork. The Link Could End at Any Moment is a powerful and evocative work that demonstrates Goodwin’s masterful draughtsmanship.



Essay by Roger Bellemare (translated):

This work is about apprehension: anything could happen at any time, and it is a thin thread that links the two images (perhaps the line that joins the two sheets of paper). Complex forms nest one inside another, at times under arches. Related to a masterwork entitled River Bed, these forms now unfold within vast spaces, imposing outlines that emphasize their essential solitude.

Betty Goodwin loved the works of Samuel Beckett, and a sign of the creative affinity between the two artists includes the understanding of the strangeness of enclosed spaces, where motionless but complex forms suggest confinement, intractable complications and other knots.

The semantic links in this body of work heralded and presided over Goodwin’s significant contribution to the exhibition O Kanada, held in Berlin (December 1982 to January 1983) and Montreal (June 23 to September 4, 1983).

Il s'agit cette fois d'une appréhension: n’importe quoi pourrait arriver n'importe quand, le fil est mince qui relie les deux propositions (peut-être la ligne qui joint les deux feuilles). Les formes complexes s'emboîtent les unes dans les autres, parfois sous des arcs. Liées à une œuvre phare qui s'appelle River Bed, ces formes se déploient maintenant dans des espaces vastes imposant des contours dessinés qui voient leur solitude essentielle soulignée.

Betty Goodwin aimait les œuvres de Samuel Beckett, signe de fraternité créative entre les deux artistes: étrangeté des lieux clos, où, immobiles, des formes complexes suggèrent des enfermements, des complications insolubles, d’autres nœuds.

Les liens sémantiques de ce corpus d’œuvres annonçaient et présidaient à l’importante participation de Goodwin à l’exposition O Kanada tenue à Berlin (décembre 1982 à janvier 1983) et à Montréal (23 juin au 4 septembre 1983).

We thank Roger Bellemare for contributing the above essay.

To view more information on Betty Goodwin, please click here.


Estimate: $8,000 - $12,000 CAD

All prices are in Canadian Dollars


Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information posted, errors and omissions may occur. All bids are subject to our Terms and Conditions of Business. Bidders must ensure they have satisfied themselves with the condition of the Lot prior to bidding. Condition reports are available upon request.