LIVE AUCTION
Post-War & Contemporary Art
5 PM ET sale
December 02, 2020 | 5:00 PM
PREVIEW APPOINTMENT
LOT DETAILS
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          

ARTIST TOP RESULTS

LOT 013

Alexander Colville
PC CC
1920 - 2013
Canadian

Woman with Revolver
acrylic polymer emulsion on board
on verso signed, titled, dated 1987, inscribed "Untempered Masonite with gesso and paint acrylic polymer emulsion by Windsor + Newton. Final varnish 10% acryloid B 72 by Rohm + Haas in xylene. Alex Colville, 11 Feb. 88" and stamped Mira Godard Gallery
22 1/2 x 11 1/2 in, 57.2 x 29.2 cm

Estimate: $600,000 - $800,000 CAD

Sold for: $841,250

Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave

PROVENANCE
Collection of the Artist
Private Collection of Mira Godard, Toronto
Estate of Mira Godard
Acquired from the above by the present Private Collection

LITERATURE
David Burnett, Alex Colville, Heffel Gallery Limited, 1989, the 1987 related acrylic on paper finished study entitled Woman with Revolver reproduced, unpaginated
Lisa Balfour Bowen, “Alex Colville: A Portrait of the Realist in His Seventieth Year,” Sunday Sun (Toronto), January 28, 1990
Alex Colville: Paintings from the Eighties, Mira Godard Gallery, 1990, reproduced on the invitation
David Burnett, Colville, Drabinsky Gallery, 1991, page 22
Mark Cheetham, Alex Colville: The Observer Observed, 1994, mentioned pages 75 and 132
Philip Fry, Alex Colville: Paintings, Prints and Processes, 1983 - 1994, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1994, discussed pages 61 - 63 and 106, listed page 174, reproduced page 63, and related studies reproduced pages 62 (#11.09), 107 (#11.10), 124 (#11.01, #11.02 and #11.03), 125 (#11.04, #11.05, #11.07, #11.08 and #11.11) and listed page 176

EXHIBITED
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto, Alex Colville: Paintings from the Eighties, February 3 – 21, 1990
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Alex Colville: Paintings, Prints and Processes, September 30, 1994 - January 15, 1995, catalogue #11
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Alex Colville: Milestones, June 23 - September 17, 2000, catalogue #13
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Alex Colville: Return, September 27 – November
30, 2003, traveling in 2003 - 2005 to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton; Museum London; University of Toronto Art Centre; Edmonton Art Gallery; and Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Alex Colville, August 23, 2014 - January 5, 2015, traveling to the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, April 24 – September 7, 2015


Literature continued:

Philip Fry, Alex Colville: Embarkation – The Genesis of a Painting, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1994, page 19

Ann Duncan, “Inside Alex Colville,” Montreal Gazette, October 1, 1994

Stéphane Baillargeon, “L’art en ses tâtonnements: Le processus créatif du peintre canadien Alex Colville au Musée des Beaux-Arts,” Le Devoir, October 2, 1994, reproduced

John Demont, “Alex Colville’s Terrible Beauty,” Maclean’s, October 10, 1994, page 61

John Bentley Mays, “Chill of Death Pervades Images in Colville Show,” Globe and Mail, November 5, 1994, page C17

Gerta Moray and Murray Pomerance, “Six Paintings by Alex Colville: A Symposium,” Murray Pomerance, “Woman with Revolver,” Canadian Art, Winter 1994, pages 24 - 26

John K. Grande, “Montreal: Alex Colville – Montreal Museum of Fine Arts,” Artforum, December 1994, page 89

J.R.C. Perkin, Ordinary Magic: A Biographical Sketch of Alex Colville, 1995, pages 17 and 123 and reproduced plate 16, page 122

C.E.S. Franks, Review of Alex Colville: The Observer Observed by Mark A. Cheetham, and Ordinary Magic: A Biographical Sketch of Alex Colville by J.R.C. Perkin, American Review of Canadian Studies, vol. 25, no. 2/3, Summer/Fall 1995, pages 371 - 374

Alex Colville: Milestones = jalons, insert in Vernissage, vol. 2, no. 3, exhibition catalogue by

Denise Leclerc, National Gallery of Canada, 2000, pages 5, 7 and 13, reproduced

Robert Fulford, “Regarding Alex Colville,” Saturday Night, June 17, 2000, page 39

Paul Gessell, “Milestone: Colville Marks 80th,” Ottawa Citizen, June 20, 2000

Ève Dumas, “L’angoisse du quotidien: Colville,” Le Droit, June 24, 2000

Rob O’Flanagan, “Canadian Artists Shine at National Gallery,” Sudbury Star, July 8, 2000

Anne Marie Todkill, “The Existential Art of Alex Colville,” Canadian Medical Association Journal, vol. 163, no. 6, September 19, 2000, page 748

Jan Wong, “Lunch With: Alex Colville – ‘I’ve been able to tell people to go to hell,’ ”

Globe and Mail, April 7, 2001, page F2

Tom Smart, Alex Colville: Return, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 2003, reproduced page 133

Robert Fulford, “Intimate Icons: Colville the Authenticator,” Colville Tributes, 2011, pages 82 - 83

Dennis Reid, A Concise History of Canadian Painting, 3rd edition, 2012, page 446

Andrew Hunter, Alex Colville, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2014, pages 30, 31, 32, 112 and 115, reproduced page 112, listed page 147

James Adams, “Visual Art,” Globe and Mail, August 23, 2014, page R3

Eva Seidner, Artist and Model, Mira Godard Gallery, 2015, pages 18, 34 - 35, reproduced pages 35 and 81

Alex Colville: Official Site of Canadian Artist Alex Colville, reproduced, gallery section, http://alexcolville.ca/gallery/alex_colville_1987_woman_with_revolver, accessed February 11, 2020



For full cataloguing, essay and images in PDF format, please click here.

To view our special publication Alex Colville, Woman with Revolver, please click here.


Estimate: $600,000 - $800,000 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.