LOT 052

AANFM LP QMG RCA SAPQ
1933 - 2004
Canadian

Structure gris-rouge
acrylic on canvas
on verso signed, titled on a label and dated 1969
45 1/8 x 36 1/8 in, 114.6 x 91.8 cm

Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000 CAD

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

LITERATURE
Gilles Daigneault and Margarida Mafra, editors, Molinari, Guido Molinari Foundation, 2018, essay by Bernard Teyssèdre, page 19

EXHIBITED
Galerie Jolliet, Quebec City


“Among Montreal artists, Molinari appears as a solitary figure. He has the intransigence and arrogance of the spirit that says No. He has always been a cause of outrage. He has developed his work to the extreme point where it is admired by many but only at a distance, taken as an example but rarely imitated.”

- Bernard Teyssèdre

In 1969 Guido Molinari stopped painting his vertical band works, in spite of the fame they had brought him, and began a cycle of what were called “checkered” paintings (referred to in titles as Structures), in which he used grid-like patterns of vertical rectangles or squares of equal size. In Structure gris-rouge, Molinari used four carefully selected colours deliberately repeated, and although the central grey and red rectangles touch diagonally, they do not create the illusion of a square within a square, due to Molinari’s placement of grey and red squares in the outer corners. The hues of each square, though differing in their warmness and coolness, radiate with equal energy, preserving the flatness of the surface. In Structure gris-rouge, Molinari painted with simplicity and serenity, with a radical surface coolness and intellectual rigour that gave his work such authority.


Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000 CAD

All prices are in Canadian Dollars


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