Guido Molinari “Bi-sériel rose”, 1968 – Spring Live Auction of Important Canadian & International Art (June 8th)
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A founding member of the second group of “Les Plasticiens” in Montréal in 1955 and constantly innovative throughout his long career as a painter, poet, and university teacher, Guido Molinari was a prominent spokesperson for abstract art from the 1950s until the 2000s. There is no abstract painter in Canada who delved deeper into the… Read more »

David Bowie “Nail-Head of Trent Reznor” – Spring Live Auction of Important Canadian and International Art (June 8th)
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According to the David Bowie expert Andy Peters: “This artwork is another ‘DHead’ of Trent Reznor and includes part of the lyrics written in David’s hand at the foot to NINs big hit ‘Hurt’ which is a unique selling point. This painting never existed in his original inventory of 66 official DHead paintings most of… Read more »

Lawren Harris “Quiet Lake (Northern Painting 12)”, circa 1926-1928 – Spring Live Auction of An Important Private Collection of Canadian Art (June 8th)
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Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson first painted on Lake Superior in October 1921. They took the Algoma Central Railway from Sand Lake, Algoma north to Franz, where they caught the Canadian Pacific train travelling west to Rossport and Schreiber. Harris would return to paint and draw on the north shore of Lake Superior almost every… Read more »

Tom Thomson “Ragged Oaks”, 1916 – Spring Live Auction of Artwork from An Important Private Collection of Canadian Art (June 8th at 7 pm EDT)
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Included in exhibitions for over a century and once part of the collection of the artist’s family for over fifty years, Tom Thomson’s Ragged Oaks makes its auction debut with Cowley Abbott this spring season. Canadian art historian and Tom Thomson scholar, Joan Murray, notes that 1916’s Ragged Oaks is a magical and vigorous quintessential Thomson painting in which… Read more »

Rob Cowley chats with Mona Mahmoud at CTV Morning Live Vancouver about the Upcoming Spring Season
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Rob Cowley Chats with Mona Mahmoud at CTV Morning Live Vancouver about the Upcoming Spring Auction Season at Cowley Abbott. They discuss the ten commandments of valuing artwork, along with artworks by Emily Carr, Lawren Harris, Tom Thomson and Andy Warhol, each being offered in the Cowley Abbott Spring Live Auction on June 8th, 2023.

William Kurelek “A Bolt Like That” – Spring Live Auction of Important Canadian & International Art (June 8th at 4 pm EDT)
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William Kurelek was a skilled storyteller, whose work provides his insight related to a wide variety of personal subjects which often focused upon his life, heritage, and religion. Kurelek’s most celebrated compositions continue to be those which reflect his upbringing and memories of life on the farm. The painter’s work explored both the tender and… Read more »

Arthur Lismer “A September Gale, Georgian Bay”, 1921 – Spring Live Auction of Artwork from An Important Private Collection (June 8th at 7 pm EDT)
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The outbreak of war in 1914 proved devastating to Toronto’s graphic art industry where most of the future members of the future Group of Seven earned their livings. In the fall of 1916 Arthur Lismer left for Halifax to teach at the Victoria School of Art. The Halifax period proved to be productive, but he… Read more »

Paul Peel “The Young Gleaner” – Spring Live Auction of Artwork from An Important Private Collection (June 8th at 7 pm EDT)
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Paul Peel spent much of the summer of 1887 in the French fishing port of Étaples-sur-mer, Pas-de-Calais, site of a colony of international artists. It was in Étaples that he found local girl, Marie, who became a favoured model for a series of figure paintings completed in 1888. In this canvas, originally titled “The Young… Read more »

Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté “Magdalena (Méditation)”, 1921 – Spring Live Auction of Important Canadian & International Art (June 8th at 4 pm EDT)
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Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté had a long practice of studying the female model, a rare subject matter for painters of the period. In 1921 the artist presented Magdalena for sale at $2,000, an unprecedented amount. The artwork was well received by Montreal critics at the time. The curled up position of the woman challenged the stereotypical excellence of… Read more »