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ONLINE AUCTION
Contemporary Curated
4th Session

December 18 - January 28, 2021

LOT DETAILS
         
         
         
         

This session is closed for bidding.
Current bid: $30,000 CAD
Bidding History
Paddle # Date Amount

325263 23-Jan-2021 07:55:37 PM $30,000

28772 12-Jan-2021 12:36:50 AM $27,500

325263 30-Dec-2020 10:37:49 PM $25,000

The bidding history list updated on: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 05:54:14

LOT 310

AANFM RCA
1925 - 2002
Canadian

Untitled
oil on canvas, circa 1954 - 1956
signed
36 x 36 in, 91.4 x 91.4 cm

Estimate: $25,000 - $35,000 CAD

Sold for: $37,250

Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave

PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the Artist
By descent to the present Private Collection, Toronto


In common with many of our most significant contemporary artists, Paterson Ewen’s earliest works were in the figurative tradition that he first studied formally when he returned from his overseas military service in 1945. Living in Montreal, he was fortunate to have inspiring teachers like Arthur Lismer and Marion Scott, and he was particularly drawn to the mentorship of Goodridge Roberts, a prominent member of the Contemporary Arts Society, a group that aimed to promote younger Canadian artists not associated with any of the staid academic societies. Its membership included Paul-Émile Borduas, who resigned to focus on the establishment of the Automatist group in 1948. Having met his future bride, dancer and painter Françoise Sullivan in 1949, Ewen became even closer to the French-Canadian signatories of the Refus global and was clearly inspired by that association.

This work is an outstanding example of Ewen’s evolution of gestural freedom in the mid-1950s and throughout the 1960s. As with so many mature and confident abstract images, organic elements are present in this work, and somewhat presage the artist’s ambitious post-1970 paintings. It is worth noting that the original Canadian owner of this fine painting first met Ewen in the Netherlands at the end of WWII, and during an enduring friendship, continued to acquire his canvases and works on paper, dated from 1949 through 1969.


All prices are in Canadian Dollars


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