Sold for: $37,250

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Toronto

Heartbreak was produced when Joyce Wieland lived in New York with her husband, artist Michael Snow. During this time she became involved in countercultural activism, including anti-war, feminist, civil rights and ecology issues. The content of her work reflected these subjects and also showed the influence of Pop Art. The motifs of hearts and breaking hearts fits into the Pop iconography of the 1960s – such as Jim Dine’s heart images. Wieland’s work is often charged with emotion, and here whole hearts embody romantic hope and broken hearts its loss. The bottom right heart, with its jagged river of tears, is reminiscent of the comic book melodrama present in Roy Lichtenstein’s images. Heartbreak - touching, humorous and unabashedly bold - is an outstanding work from this period.

Throughout the 1960s in New York, Wieland was exploding with creativity, using film, photography, as well as industrialized and found materials in her work. Reflecting her feminist concerns, Wieland incorporated quilting and sewing into her modernist practice to establish their status as valid media for fine art. Wieland broke boundaries in her identity as a woman and an artist, and forged a fearless path in Canadian art history.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars