CGP CSGA CSPWC OSA P11
1916 - 1956
Canadian
Untitled
ink and watercolour on illustration board
on verso inscribed "WC-131-6" and numbered W061 on the gallery label
16 1/4 x 22 1/4 in, 41.3 x 56.5 cm
Estimate: $8,000 - $12,000 CAD
Sold for: $11,250
Preview at:
PROVENANCE
The Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Ontario
Oscar Cahén’s lasting impact on painting in Canada is very much outsized when compared to the fleeting time-span of his career. Respected and beloved as a commercial artist, throughout much of the 1950s his designs expressed a lively, witty, and stylish character. At the same time, he began exploring abstraction using a vernacular of crescents, spikes, ovoids, and semi-organic forms, as seen here. The friendly and charismatic Cahén also began cultivating friendship with like-minded artists such as Walter Yarwood and Harold Town. With them, he would form Painters 11 in 1953, and their exhibitions of abstraction were the first of their kind in English Canada. The sudden gulf then left behind from Cahén’s death in an automobile accident in November of 1956 was deeply felt. Town and Yarwood organized a memorial exhibition at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the AGO) for Cahén in 1959, and Jack Bush dedicated a number of watercolours from his 1956 November series to his late friend. Although unfairly brief in its making, Cahén’s legacy remains one of exploration, expansion, and joy.
All prices are in Canadian Dollars
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