Sold for: $25,000

PROVENANCE
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE
Constance Naubert-Riser, Jean McEwen, Colour in Depth, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1987, page 38

Throughout his career, Jean McEwen experimented with techniques, materials and compositional formats to create his fascinating works. As Constance Naubert-Riser related, McEwen wrote in his 1979 book Cul de lampe, “A painting is created from rhythm, form, space, light, shade and colour – but it is the feeling, the poetry of the painter that produces the harmony.” McEwen comprehended space completely through colour. In Les continents fleuris #11 (The Flowering Continents #11), his variegated use of opaque and translucent layers sets up an interplay between the golden surface and the dark hues and compositional elements that lie below it, playing with the viewer’s perception of space. Underpainted faint vertical lines divide the canvas and create tension between the centre and the margins of the work. As the luminous yellow dances across the surface in a gestural manner, the resulting rich texture developed demonstrates McEwen’s sophisticated manipulation of the material. Typical of this series, dripping appears above the lower edge. A master of Colour Field painting, McEwen generates a captivating composition with depth and drama on this magnificent canvas.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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