Sold for: $41,300

PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the Artist by the present Private Collection, Montreal

Rita Letendre was introduced to Paul-Émile Borduas and the Automatists while studying at l’École des beaux-arts in Montreal. Their expressive and intuitive approach to art was much more in tune with Letendre’s interest in creative exploration than the traditional methods taught at l’École des beaux-arts. After showing her works with the Automatists—in pivotal exhibitions such as La matière chante in 1954 at the Galerie Antoine and Espace 55 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts—she was fully committed to exploring the possibilities of abstraction. This is manifested in the dynamic and self-assured Bise boréale from 1959. Her use of paint, applied in successive streaks with a palette knife, is undeniably liberated. By dragging the knife through the pigment, she reveals underlying touches of olive green in the whites and blacks, and rich varying shades of blue in the aquamarine areas. By juxtaposing vertical, horizontal and diagonal dashes that rise and recede from the foreground to the background, Letendre built tension within this highly rhythmic and tactile composition.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars