Vendu pour : 23 400 $

PROVENANCE
A gift from J. Ron Longstaffe to the present Private Collector, Toronto

BIBLIOGRAPHIE
Ian M. Thom and Andrew Hunter, Gordon Smith: The Act of Painting, Vancouver Art Gallery, 1997, a similar 1961 oil entitled Pacific Landscape, collection of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, reproduced page 78

The early 1960s were a time of breakthrough for Gordon Smith in the recognition of his work. In 1960, he was chosen to represent Canada at the São Paulo Bienal, and the work selected included some of his most experimental up to that time. A Canada Council fellowship allowed him to take a year off from teaching at the University of British Columbia to travel and paint, and his first show at a commercial gallery, the ground-breaking New Design Gallery in Vancouver, took place in 1961. This work, which appears to be an abstracted harbour, is dominated by deep tonalities of blue, its planes of cobalt and turquoise shifting moodily like weather. The central, horizontal congregation of shapes floats in these blue tonalities, suggesting buildings and a freighter, and drawing our eye with their bright white, red and yellow accents. Smith’s treatment of brushwork is fluid and expressionist, and his rich surface makes the viewer delight in the sheer physicality of paint.

J. Ron Longstaffe, who gave this work as a gift to the present owner, was a prominent and discriminating Vancouver collector and philanthropist, who donated over 800 works of art to the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Tous les prix affichés sont en dollars canadiens

Bien que nous ayons pris soin d’assurer l’exactitude de l’information publiée, des erreurs ou omissions peuvent se produire. Toute enchère est soumise à nos modalités et conditions de vente. Les enchérisseurs doivent s’assurer qu’ils sont satisfaits de la condition du lot avant d’enchérir. Les rapports de condition sont disponibles sur demande.