Lawren S. Harris’s transition to non-objective abstraction in the mid-1930s is one of the most interesting and significant reinventions by an artist in Canadian art history. After unofficially leading the establishment of a distinctly Canadian approach to landscape painting, and pushing the boundaries of what the Canadian public would accept, and then celebrate, his relatively abrupt and nearly complete switch in focus to non-objective subjects was also well in advance of the public’s appreciation of such modern approaches to art.

For the artist, however, this transition was entirely consistent with his process of artistic reinvention and allowed him to more freely explore ever expanding ideas. In his writing, he clearly communicated his ideas on the topic, stating: “My purpose in attempting to paint abstractions is that there is at once more imaginative scope and a more exacting discipline in non-objective painting. I have had ideas insistently forming which could not be expressed in representational terms.”[1]

By the 1950s, Harris had settled into his own unique style of confident and bold abstract painting. Hard-edged, geometric shapes and volumes that had defined his initial phases transformed into more expressive line-based rhythmic designs, with organic forms and suggestions becoming central. At this point, Harris had returned to Canada after half a decade in the United States, settling in Vancouver in 1940. From this mature abstract period, an exciting and recognizable style emerges, where natural suggestions assert themselves in novel ways, constructing something unusual from the familiar.

The Turning Earth is an exemplary demonstration of such work. The bold and jubilant colours reflect an enthusiasm that had returned to Harris’s practice, and despite the non-objective nature of the work, a clear sense of glowing light is tangible. Echoes of the landscape manifest in the suggestion of shimmering water, with colouring straight from his arctic works and a small, fragmented island form. Similar natural allusions can be found in other Harris abstracts from this time, including the monumental canvases Abstraction 119 (Audain Art Museum Collection, sold by Heffel in May 2005) and Northern Image (private collection, sold by Heffel in May 2023).

During the 1950s, Harris returned to using boards 12 by 15 inches for his initial sketches, which had been his standard size between 1925 and 1934, at the peak of his landscape career. His process often included scraping off old landscape paintings and repurposing the boards for new ideas, as is the case here. From the labels on the verso and cataloguing from the 1930s, we know that The Turning Earth was painted over a scraped-off sketch entitled Building in the North, done sometime between 1925 and 1934, and catalogued by Doris Mills as being in Toronto when Harris left the country. At some point this board, along with many other landscape sketches, was reclaimed by the artist; some began their new phase as supports for new, abstract compositions.

Often, elements of the original sketch were subtly incorporated into the composition, and the combination of these ideas would evolve and recombine as Harris repeated and refined the design in other, larger compositions. The concepts first expressed in these sketches then continued to develop over the years and became regular and critical sources of inspiration for increasingly diverse abstractions. In this case, The Turning Earth was the basis for at least two other larger works, LSH 76 and Abstraction U, the latter produced at least a decade after this preliminary sketch. The lasting impact of this painting on Harris is easily understood when viewing it today: it stands out as a remarkably potent and dynamic work, a powerful manifestation of Harris’s abstract ambitions and among his finest executions at this scale.

We thank Alec Blair, Director/Lead Researcher, Lawren S. Harris Inventory Project, for contributing the above essay.

1. Quoted in Bess Harris and R.G.P. Colgrove, eds., Lawren Harris (Macmillan, 1969), 91.