A niche collecting market within Canadian art, Sampson-Matthews silkscreens are bold and iconic images of the Canadian landscape and regional ways of life. Produced with high quality oil pigments, the silkscreens have stood the test of time. The vibrant colour and drama of these artworks, created by leading historical Canadian artists, provides an excellent opportunity for collectors to build their collection with the commanding imagery of Sampson-Matthews.
A lion in the printmaking industry, Sampson-Matthews was founded by Ernest Sampson, a pioneer of silkscreen printing in Canada, and Charles Matthews. The firm was a frequent stop for many artists working in the graphic arts and printmaking realms of art. Celebrated Canadian artists, such as A.Y. Jackson, A.J. Casson, and Franklin Carmichael all collaborated with the firm.
Joseph Sidney Hallam, The Log Drive (Sampson Matthews silkscreen)
One of the largest art projects in Canadian art history, the Sampson-Matthews Silkscreen Project was a defining moment in establishing the concept of ‘Canadian Art’ and a massive morale booster during the Second World War. As Joyce Zemans writes, this project was “largely responsible for shaping our notion of Canadian art and Canadian identity” (Zemans, 7). The pre-eminent printmaking firm in Canada, Sampson-Matthews Ltd., was the natural choice for a national art project.
Spearheaded by A.Y. Jackson in 1942, the project was designed primarily for military use and evolved into an educational program with the goal to make Canadian art accessible. Moreover, the project was designed to promote a national identity, as Canada was still a young country. As a war-artist during the First World War, Jackson saw first-hand not only the horrors of war, but the way in which the military was inextricably linked to national and cultural identity.
Jackson proposed that this project be targeted for military distribution to bases across Canada and throughout the world, eventually to expand into schools and social clubs. Over the course of the 30-year project, 118 images were produced by Sampson-Matthews, thirty-six of which were part of the wartime series. Thirty-six prints were produced after the Second World War in partnership with the National Gallery of Canada, and an additional fifteen images were produced with Sampson-Matthews after the National Gallery of Canada ceased their partnership in 1955. All of the prints were designed with between ten to twenty oil-based colours and to reflect Canadian life and the landscape, with geographic representation from across the country.
Joseph Ernest Sampson, Gaspe (Sampson Matthews silkscreen)
Jackson, understanding the harsh realities for artists during periods of war and the limited opportunities for sustainable work, sought to involve both young and established artists in the project, as a way to promote their work and create jobs. In late 1943, the first series of twenty-five works were completed in a large format, measuring 30 x 40 inches. A smaller size was later produced for certain images to offer economical options for the public.
On the production side of the project, Chuck (Charles) Matthews and A.J. Casson oversaw the printing of the works. Collectors will sometimes find Casson’s signature in ballpoint pen in the lower corner or at the edge of a work, signifying that the artist personally oversaw the print’s production.
Images from thirty-nine prominent Canadian artists were selected, including works by: Franklin Arbuckle, Harold Beament, Bertram Binning, Fritz Brandtner, Emily Carr, A.J. Casson, Paraskeva Clark, Albert Cloutier, Alan Collier, Charles Comfort, Rody Kenny Courtice, Berthe Des Clayes, Arthur Ensor, Frederick Stanley Haines, Joseph Sydney Hallam, Lawren Harris, Hilton Hassell, Yvonne McKague Housser, Jack Humphrey, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald, Thoreau MacDonald, Isabel McLaughlin, James Wilson Morrice, L.A.C. Panton, Ruth May Pawson, Walter J. Phillips, Arthur Donald Price, Tom Roberts, Sarah Robertson, Albert Henry Robinson, Joseph Ernest Sampson, Tom Thomson, Stanley Francis Turner, Sydney Hollinger Watson, Horace Watson Wickenden and Dorothy Williams.
W.J. Phillips, Mount Eisenhower (Sampson Matthews silkscreen)
Through an international promotional campaign, thousands of prints found their way to the U.K., Germany, American bases, and even Russia. In 1943, Colonel C.R. Hill, Director of Special Services, noted that: “From a morale standpoint, these pictures have tremendous value. Perhaps particularly in the case of men who have been away from Canada for two or three years, the display of Canadian scenes will make them conscious of the land and cause for which they are called upon to fight. To those men who are still in Canada but who have to live under camp conditions, the pictures will bring a touch of beauty badly needed to counter act the dullness of their environment” (Zemans, 13). The project was living proof of the power of art and its ability to help define nationhood and art history in a pivotal moment in Canadian history.
Prints from the Sampson-Matthews project are wonderful tokens of Canadian art history and are regularly sought after by collectors. For new collectors entering the art market, the prints offer a perfect entry point to acquire an iconic image by a recognized Canadian historical artist. With unique ties to Canadian military and political history, the prints allow insight into the country’s early endeavours to define a national identity and build unification within a bourgeoning and diverse country.
A.J. Casson, Ontario Village (Sampson Matthews silkscreen)
Cowley Abbott is pleased to be entrusted with this collection from the Archives of Sampson-Matthews Ltd., comprised of a selection of unique prints from the Sampson-Matthews Silkscreen Project, as well as Canadian historical artworks and artifacts. For more information on this forthcoming auction and project, contact our specialists at 416-479-9703 or info@cowleyabbott.ca
Sources
Joyce Zemans, “Envisioning Nation: Nationhood, Identity and the Sampson-Matthews Silkscreen Project: The Wartime Prints,” Journal of Canadian Art History, Vol. 19, no. 1 (1998) pages 6-51
Cowley Abbott is pleased to launch into the new year with our January Online Auction of Post-War and Contemporary Art. Comprised of fantastic works by blue-chip Post-War Canadian artists, practicing Contemporary artists, and hidden gems, this sale offers the opportunity for new and seasoned collectors alike to build their collections.
We’ve highlighted a few of the great artists and artworks included in this thematic sale and their significance to the canon of Canadian art history. This dynamic auction offers buyers the opportunity to inject colour, vibrancy, and modern aesthetics into their collections, while allowing a complex dialogue between works over a range of styles, themes and movements.
Ecology and The Canadian Landscape
Steve Driscoll, Lagoon
Two works of particular note in our auction are Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s ink drawing “Untitled” and Steve Driscoll’s mixed media “Lagoon”. Integral to both artist’s practice is the effect of human contact on the landscape.
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Untitled
Cowichan/Syilx First Nations contemporary artist, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun is one of the most sought-after artists in contemporary Canadian art. Yuxweluptun’s strategy is to document and promote change in contemporary Indigenous history, infusing his art with Coast Salish cosmology, Northwest Coast formal design elements, and the Western landscape tradition. His work incorporates components from Northwest First Nations art, as well as evocations of the Canadian landscape painting tradition derived from the Group of Seven. The figures included in his works are not necessarily representations of real people, but instead act as a visual comment on Indigenous identity within the Canadian physical and social landscape. This diminutive work, though small in scale, exemplifies complex and weighty theories of colonization, Indigenous identity, social politics and questions Canadian national identity.
Steve Driscoll, a Toronto-based artist, is known for his mesmerizing urethan-based paintings of bold neon colours morphing and marrying into each other, creating expressive representations of the Canadian landscape. Toronto-based curator Bill Clarke explains that Driscoll’s works are “More than just re-imaginings of the landscape, his paintings, materially and conceptually, also illustrate how advancements in technology are shaping our interactions with the world and supporting innovative approaches to art-making.” “Lagoon” offers a psychedelic close-up view of the shimmering surface of a lagoon, with the abstracted currents and fauna hypnotizing the viewer. We are pleased to be entrusted with this commanding work by an important contemporary artist.
Blue Chip Post-War Art
Yves Gaucher, Silences
This auction introduces wonderful examples of works by celebrated Canadian Post-War artists. Aligned with the movements of Minimalism, hard-edge abstraction, conceptual art and bold expressionism, artworks by Yves Gaucher, Gershon Iskowitz, and Roy Kiyooka present an opportunity for collectors to diversify their collections with blue-chip artists who helped shape contemporary art practices.
Gershon Iskowitz, Untitled Abstraction
Yves Gaucher’s “Silences” exemplifies the artist’s minimalist approach as a rebellion to conventions of printmaking. Calm tonalities, geometric form and expanse of space provide an arena for introspection. Whereas “Untitled” by Gerson Iskowitz offers a bold expressive space, highlighting the artist’s signature exploration of colour relationships. An artist with a distinct style of his own, not fully aligning with abstraction or representation exclusively, Iskowitz produced these fresh watercolour works throughout his career as an exploration of the limits of the medium and colour relationships. The resulting organic forms bleed into one another and float ethereally across the paper.
Roy Kiyooka, Abstraction
The experimental Roy Kiyooka is represented in the auction by two distinct works. The artist’s early 1959 experimental watercolour “Abstraction”, which oscillates between abstraction and representation, is in contrast to a more contemporary 1971 conceptual gelatin silver print “StoneDGloves”. The former exemplifies the young artist’s explorations with watercolour and abstraction under the influence and tutelage of Jock MacDonald at the provincial Institute of Technology and Art. “StoneDGloves” presents a dramatic shift towards conceptual art in photography. This work was a part of a photographic series taken by the artist at the construction sites of Osaka, Japan at the time of Expo ’70. Kiyooka photographed various discarded workmen’s gloves which had been petrified in cement on worksites. The series recalls art theories of trace and ephemerality while exploring the poetic relationship of human interaction with the evolution of the landscape. The Collection of the National Gallery of Canada holds 18 photographs from this series, including this image.
Pop Colour and Aesthetics
If you are looking to add a bold splash of colour to your collection or acquire playful op-art, works by Max Johnston, John MacGregor, and Burton Kramer would be perfect additions.
Max Johnston, Wholeness in a Collective Compression
Max Johnston’s “Wholeness in a Collective Compression” is an excellent example of the artist’s experimentation with the limits of paint as a medium. Moving towards sculptural application of the paint, this piece showcases Johnston’s physical language of paint on the two-dimensional plane. A vibrant technicolour display, this piece instantly inspires energy while adhering to the modernist grid.
John MacGregor, Ripple Time (Multi-Colour)
Throughout his practice, John MacGregor has investigated the effects of time on ordinary objects. Chairs, clocks, rooms, and objects are distorted on the image plane as a characterization of bending space and time. The artist explains:
“I have always been fascinated by the concept of time. What it might be, how it is perceived, how it is represented and what it symbolizes. We live in a society that is structured and regulated by a symbol of time. We have come to accept this symbol as a valid and real expression of what time is. However, this acceptance has been at the expense of our intuitive and subjective feelings about time. Clocks have forced us to view time as detached, regimented and a structured entity that has a reality separate from ourselves. The equal intervals and numbers on the face of the clock further this perception.”
Both “Ripple Time (Multi-colour)” and “Squeezed Time” employ surrealist and op-art aesthetics of morphed and distorted objects in a play of the visual plane of depth and dimension. This manipulation of form represents the artist’s investigation of metric time as a modern social construct and the power it wields over our core functions. Playful and contemplative, the works immediately energize the viewing space and engage the viewer with their own temporal experiences.
Burton Kramer, Garden Music
Finally, Burton Kramer’s fresh geometric canvas entitled “Garden Music” brings forth memories of effervescent symphonies. The artist is famously known as the graphic designer for the iconic 1974 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation logo with the radiating, stylized ‘C’. Through his fine art practice, Kramer is renowned for his experiments with synesthesia of colour and music, exploring the language of visual forms and sound as the eye dances along the exuberant canvas of fresh pigments.
Cowley Abbott is delighted to be entrusted with a variety of rare and stunning works in the current Post-War and Contemporary Art Auction. The full catalogue of artworks included in our January online auction can be found here, presenting a plethora of paintings, sculpture, works on paper and innovative mixed media pieces by renowned artists. Contact our team for further details on this sale, the bidding process and how we can assist you to build your collection with Cowley Abbott.
Cowley Abbott, A Leader in the Canadian Auction Industry, Continues to Realize Strong Results for Canadian Historical, Post-War and Contemporary Art at Auction
The Cowley Abbott Fall Auction of Important Canadian Art on December 3rd was a resounding success, attaining excellent results and connecting collectors with superior artworks by renowned Canadian artists representing the country from coast to coast. In several instances, collectors participating over the telephone and online drove bidding to record levels, leading to the unprecedented values reached for select works by celebrated Canadian historical, post-war and contemporary artists.
Jack Bush, Column on Browns (1965) Price Realized: $870,000 (Auction Record)
A monumental masterwork by Jack Bush, Column on Browns, made its auction debut, soaring to a new world auction record of $870,000, after spirited bidding took place over multiple platforms. This captivating canvas was featured in major international exhibitions, including “Colorists 1950-1965” at the San Francisco Museum of Art and the Sao Paulo IX Biennial in 1967. The commanding work from Bush’s golden period of the mid-1960s was met with much admiration and excitement from the moment of the publication of the catalogue and is a remarkable addition to any discerning art collection.
Jack Bush, Summer Gone (1976) Price Realized: $90,000
The auction house was delighted to be entrusted with another seminal work by Jack Bush, Summer Gone, the first triangle-shaped canvas executed by the artist as part of a series of shaped canvases in August 1976. The shape of Summer Gone is an irregular triangle with different lengths on all three sides, allowing Bush freedom from the restrictions of the traditional picture plane. Bush only created four triangle paintings, with this rare canvas selling for $90,000.
Cowley Abbott was again delighted to offer numerous works by accomplished Canadian female artists, many of which garnered energetic bidding during the Fall Auction, notably Emily Carr’s Forest Glade (Dark Glade), reaching $216,000. This painting radiates with compositional energy, eloquently capturing Carr’s deep connection to the wild, untamed beauty of the forest. Rita Letendre, an electric and dazzling painter, demanded attention with three works by the celebrated artist selling well overestimate. Untitled reached $28,000 and Manotik sold for $20,400 – airbrushed compositions of forceful chevrons and diagonal bands of exploding colours, both from the most celebrated period of Letendre’s artistic oeuvre. Dorothy Knowles, a beloved Saskatchewan painter, saw reward with the enigmatic canvases, The Noon Sun ($7,000) and Bright Weeds ($26,400).
Tom Hodgson Non Objective, Bluish Price Realized: $60,000 (Auction Record)
Further records were smashed in the December 3rd evening auction, with appreciation shown for Painter’s Eleven’s artist, Tom Hodgson. An energized, abstract masterpiece, Non Objective (Bluish), found a new home selling for $60,000, an auction record for the multitalented painter and athlete. Fellow member of the Painter’s Eleven abstract artist’s collective, Ray Mead, was much sought after in the lead-up to the auction, with Untitled, a 1959 painting fetching $15,600.
Attention for historical Canadian art was strong, as Surf, Barbados, B.W.I by J.E.H. MacDonald commanded a final value of $21,600 and a dynamic, yet diminutive oil on board by J.W. Morrice, Coast, Brittany, sold for $45,600. Rain on the River (Morning on the River) by David Milne, a favourite artist amongst collectors, achieved $40,800. Ungava Bay by A.Y. Jackson, a sketch for a canvas in the collection of Hart House, hammered down at $48,000, representing the artist’s vision and connection to the Arctic landscape. Another success in the historical realm was Martello Tower, Montreal by Ethel Seath, selling for $24,000.
Cowley Abbott was entrusted with a painting by the esteemed artist and physician, Sir Frederick Grant Banting. 2021 marks the centenary of the discovery of insulin by Banting, a momentous discovery that changed the lives of millions of people and for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1923. Island, French River, Ontario, suffused with colour, light and shadow, sold for $31,200, a brilliant result for this historical Canadian figure.
Alex Janvier, Shoreline Existence Price Realized: $31,200 (Auction Record)
A founding member of the Professional Native Indian Artists, established in 1973, Dene and Anishinaabe (Salteaux) artist Alex Janvier of Cold Lake, Alberta, was an integral component of the auction. Shoreline Existence, a striking acrylic on canvas, set a new auction record at $31,200 after competitive bidding.
Three automatic works by Jock Macdonald executed in 1947 well exceeded their pre-sale estimates with vigorous telephone bidding the night of the auction. Untitled (Two Creatures) sold for $6,600, Prehistoric World for $10,200 and New Fruit for $7,800.
Jean Paul Riopelle, Dieppes (1965) Price Realized: $130,500
A prominent member of the Automatistes, Jean Paul Riopelle’s Dieppes (1966) sold for $130,500, while his small but mighty painting, Sans titre, 1970, had collectors clambering, achieving a final selling price of $52,800. The works of Ted Harrison were again met with avid interest – Yukon Priest selling for $19,200 and The Walk finding a buyer at $10,200.
The impressive results of the Fall Auction of Important Canadian Art are due to the active participation of both new and old bidders alike, as well as the unwavering support of the Canadian art community. We extend our sincere gratitude to the clients, bidders and buyers who helped to ensure that our Fall Live Auction was a triumph.
A.Y. Jackson, Ungava Bay Price Realized: $48,000
The new year begins with an exciting season of online auctions, offering a wide range of artwork for all levels of collectors. The team at Cowley Abbott is already hard at work preparing the tremendous offerings to be presented in the Spring Live Auction of Important Canadian Art and we greatly look forward to sharing the catalogue in the coming months. Cowley Abbott is currently accepting consignments for its upcoming auctions and if you feel our firm can be of service, we would be pleased to provide a complimentary and confidential consultation. Please contact our specialists at 1-866-931-8415 or mail@cowleyabbott.ca
Rare & Exceptional Work Spanning More Than A Century of Canadian Art Draws Competition From In-Person, Telephone & Online Bidders
The September 24th Cowley Abbott Fine Art Live Auction of Important Canadian and International Art held in the elegant Aria Ballroom of The Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville was a resounding success. Exceptional artworks by Canada’s pre-eminent historical, post-war and contemporary artists achieved strong results for consignors, while collectors were connected with artworks of rarity and quality.
Frederick Banting, Cobalt (1932) Price Realized: $44,840
Cowley Abbott was pleased to be entrusted with three significant works by the esteemed artist and physician, Sir Frederick Grant Banting. 2021 marks the centenary of the discovery of insulin by Banting, a momentous discovery that changed the lives of millions of people and for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1923. “Cobalt (1932)”, a striking canvas displaying Banting’s keen sense of colour, light and shadow sold for $44,840. Two other paintings by the artist, including “Seville, Spain, 1933”, broke through its pre-sale estimate achieving $20,060, while “Birches, French River, 1930”, a quintessential work by the artist sold for $18,880. Brilliant results for this deserving historical Canadian icon.
Cornelius Krieghoff, Skinner’s Cave and Owl’s Head Mountain, Lake Memphremagog Price Realized: $47,200
The September live auction witnessed solid prices for a wide range of historical Canadian works of art, including the work of: A.Y. Jackson (“St. Tites des Caps” fetching $21,240 and “Sugar Shanty, L’Islet” selling for $24,780); Marc-Aurèle Fortin (“La Seine à Paris” selling for $8,850); David Milne (“Fox Hill on a Rainy Day, Boston Corners”, a rare watercolour executed in 1920 fetched $82,600) and Robert Pilot (“Autumn Landscape” selling for $17,700). Among the strong selection of historical Canadian artworks included in the sale were works entrusted from the collection of Senator E. Leo Kolber, including a rare canvas by Cornelius Krieghoff, “Skinner’s Cave and Owl’s Head Mountain, Lake Memphremagog”. The rugged grandeur, tightly observed detail and sublime drama of this painting injects the work with a high romanticism that only Cornelius Kreighoff could accomplish. This fresh to auction painting garnered much attention from collectors during our bustling previews, fetching $47,200. “The Fruit Shop, Ottawa” by Kathleen Moir Morris, another important work from the collection of Senator Kolber, sold for $73,337.
A key highlight in the auction were two exceptional watercolours by the celebrated Canadian artist, James Wilson Morrice. “Study for ‘The Pond, West Indies’” and “Study for ‘Village Street, West Indies’” are exemplary watercolours that showcase the artist’s technique and ability, acting as preparatory studies for the paintings in the collection of the Montreal Museum of Arts, which are among the best examples in the artist’s oeuvre. These special works made their debut at auction, finding new homes for over $22,000, respectively.
From the moment of publication of the auction online, interest and excitement surrounded three paintings by the renowned Indigenous artist, Norval Morrisseau. These fresh to auction works, all acquired directly from the artist, illustrate the artist’s powerful and unique style, drawn from Anishnaabe cultural traditions. Two striking paintingsdepicting Harriet Kakegamic, the artist’s wife, each sold for $25,960 after much spirited bidding, while the enigmatic and endearing “Untitled (Moose Pair)” soared to $35,400.
Doris McCarthy, Iceberg and Floes Price Realized: $47,200
Cowley Abbott was delighted to offer numerous works by accomplished Canadian female artists, many of which garnered lively bidding during the September auction, notably, Molly Lamb Bobak’s energetic,“The Bike Race”. This work drew strong attention during the live auction preview season and it did not take long for competitive bidding to push the work well beyond the pre-sale expectation of $5,000-7,000, hammering down for $17,700. “Summer Landscape” by Nora Collyer followed suit, selling for $18,800; the electric canvas, “Abstraction”, by Rita Letendre fetched $25,960; the respected and loved Doris McCarthy had two works included in the sale – “Iceberg & Floes”, from her sought after Arctic series, which sold for $47,200, and an early work, “Two Boats at Barachois” selling for $9,440; while Maud Lewis achieved another remarkable result with “Three Black Cats” reaching $18,800.
Multiple key sculptures were featured in the September 24th catalogue auction, including two important bronzes by Sorel Etrog: “Petachon” sold for $8,260 and “Untitled” for $23,600. A dynamic steel sculpture by Walter Yarwood of Painter’s Eleven sold for $4,484. A beautifully carved 20th Century Chest, a popular object with collectors, soared to $14,160 after spirited bidding between the telephone and the room.
A variety of Post-War and Contemporary offerings captivated visitors attending the Cowley Abbott gallery during previews prior to the September evening sale. Guido Molinari’s “Tri-Sériel Rouge”, a late addition to the sale, garnered avid attention fetching $82,600 over the telephone; Jean McEwen’s enigmatic “Tableaux sans paroles #3” sold for $59,000; “Snow Play” by Ted Harrison, a favourite amongst collectors, climbed to $14,160; a painterly landscape by Gordon Smith sold for $23,600; Paterson Ewen’s “Untitled” fetched $14,160 and a quintessential work by Kazuo Nakamura sold for $28,320.
The Atlantic magic realists exceeded expectations with Tom Forrestall’s shaped canvas, “Orchard” selling for a final price of $9,440 and Christopher Pratt’s “1887 Orange 13 Cent Stamp” hammering down for $12,980 after competitive bidding.
We extend our thanks to the clients, bidders and buyers who helped to ensure that our September 24th Live auction was a triumph. We are already preparing a very exciting catalogue for the December Live Auction and look forward to sharing it with you. The fall auction season continues with The Canadian Landscape Online Auction running from October 20th-27th, followed by the November Auction of Canadian and International Art from November 10th-24th, taking place concurrently with the December Live Auction.
Cowley Abbott is currently accepting consignments for its upcoming auctions and if you feel our firm can be of service, we would be pleased to provide a complimentary and confidential consultation. Please contact our specialists at 1-866-931-8415 or mail@cowleyabbott.ca.
Cowley Abbott’s Live Auction of Important Canadian and International Art, taking place on September 24th at the Royal Ontario Museum, includes numerous works by celebrated Canadian female artists. Women artists have had a monumental impact on Canadian art throughout the decades. These accomplished artists have enriched the practice of visual art with their unique voices and distinctive artistic styles, developing an important facet within the Canadian art world. The breadth and talent of these female artists, and their significance in the past, present and future, is essential to the captivating story of Canadian art-making and collecting.
Rita Letendre, Abstraction (1974)
The critically acclaimed Rita Letendre, a prominent abstract artist, born of Abenaki and Quebecois heritage, has had a significant artistic career of various stylistic periods, spanning decades and various geographic placements. Letendre’s career in painting was cemented in Montreal in the 1950s when she became associated with two prominent abstract groups in Quebec, Les Automatistes and Les Plasticiens. Letendre was often the sole female artist within the shows for these groups, and eventually developed away from their approach to painting, finding it too restrictive.
Letendre’s large canvases of the 1970s explore her fascination with depicting speed and vibration. The use of airbrushed paint creates a dimension of depth in “Abstraction” (lot 48), while the dramatic shift in palette occurs when the black ‘arrow’, framed by two vivid neon green and bright pink stripes, constrained by turquoise and azure bands, slices through the surface of the work. The sharp lines of bright colour all converge to a single point at the tip of the black ‘arrow’ in these works, magnifying and concentrating the energy. Like the birth of a supernova, light and energy burst forth from the image plane in “Abstraction”.
Joyce Wieland, Conversation Piece (1960)
Joyce Wieland studied design at Central Technical School in Toronto, before working as a graphic designer in the early 1950s and developing her practice in visual art. Wieland lived and worked with other artists in Toronto, eventually meeting the noted Canadian artist, Michael Snow, who she went on to marry. Wieland’s artistic career began to develop in 1960 when she held her first solo show after being included in a number of group shows. We recognize Wieland’s contribution to Canadian art for her experimentation with film, and her numerous paintings, assemblages, and mixed media works depicting themes of erotism and feminism.
Between 1959 and 1960, Wieland set up a proper studio space, purchased canvases and supplies and started executing larger scale works. Representing the first suggestion of her artistic future, the provocative works often featured phalluses, vaginas and hearts rendered in a humorous cartoon-like representation. Exploring this new lexicon, Wieland called these works her “sex poetry”. During a time where the female subjugation from her male contemporaries was celebrated, Wieland turned the tables and gazed at the male with the same liberty and lust automatically afforded to these male artists. “’Conversation Piece’ with a Short on Sailing” (lot 51) exemplifies this cheeky and boundary pushing question of gender politics.
Molly Lamb Bobak, The Bike Race
A trailblazer for women in the arts in Canada, Molly Lamb Bobak was an official war artist, stationed in England during the Second World War. Bobak had initially enlisted as a draftswoman in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC), documenting the day to day activities of her fellow corps members. Having exhibited at the Canadian Army Art exhibition in 1944, Bobak was awarded a prize for her work leading to her appointment as a war artist between 1945 and 1946.
Bobak often gravitated towards depictions of crowd scenes, as she was inspired by the celebratory victory parades of the Allied Forces at the end of the war. The communal gathering and subsequent energy created in a crowd fascinated the artist and this interest was further explored when Bobak returned to Canada to begin teaching at the University of New Brunswick. Frequenting pubs, sporting events, parades and student rallies, the campus environment offered Bobak ample inspiration and the opportunity to capture the essence of the crowd scene unfolding. “The Bike Race” (lot 2) is a charming work; the canvas captures the movement and frenzy of a bike race, as cyclists round a corner with exaggerated leaning bodies and dots of bright colour stipple the landscape.
Dorothy Knowles, Reeds (1979)
Dorothy Knowles grew up on a farm overlooking a Prairie valley in Saskatchewan and initially had no plans to become a painter, studying biology at the University of Saskatchewan. At the time of her graduation, a friend persuaded her to enroll in a six-week summer course given by the University of Saskatchewan at Emma Lake, where Knowles found a proclivity for art. Her participation in the Emma Lake Workshops in the late 1940s through to the 1960s greatly influenced and encouraged her interest in landscape painting.
In the 1960s Knowles discovered the importance of working directly from nature, while also employing the use of sketches and photographs to finish her work in the studio. Her paintings capture the richness of the Prairie landscape through exploration of colour and texture. In “Reeds” (lot 71), Knowles transmits the diverse natural environment of the landscape. Often associated with paintings of expansive flat fields of wheat, Knowles brings a fresh approach to capturing her native landscape, exploring an impressionistic view of a diverse marshy landscape.
Nora Collyer, Summer Landscape
In 1921 Nora Collyer joined fellow Art Association of Montreal graduates at their studio at 305 Beaver Hill Hall. This association of artists called themselves the Beaver Hall Group. The three-story house offered the artists inexpensive studio space and a large room on the ground floor, which served as their exhibition gallery. The Beaver Hall group of modernist painters had a distinctive style rooted in the life and culture of Montreal and Quebec.
Growing up in Montreal with English Protestant parents, Collyer was imbued with a strong sense of community and gravitated towards depicting village landscapes and tokens of rural communities. With a richly composed foreground and a distant village depicted by the shore, “Summer Landscape” (lot 68) is executed with bold colour and rhythmic form, expressing her love of the region.
Kathleen Morris, The Fruit Shop, Ottawa
Kathleen Moir Morris studied under William Brymner and Maurice Cullen at the school of the Art Association of Montreal, and became a prominent member of the Beaver Hall Group in 1920. Working in oil, her subjects include landscape, genre, street and market scenes, as well as cabstands throughout Montreal and its environs. Morris was born with a physical disability, but refused to let it prevent her from painting outdoors in all seasons. After her father passed away in 1914, Morris moved to Ottawa with her mother a few years later, residing in a house on O’Connor Street from 1922 to 1929. The painter maintained an active presence in the Montreal art scene while living in Ottawa, continuing to participate in Beaver Hall exhibitions as well as those of the Canadian Group of Painters.
Morris would have frequented the Byward Market, still a bustling and popular destination to this day. In “The Fruit Shop, Ottawa” (lot 17), she depicts the sun shining on a fruit stand, busy with market goers in stylish 1920s attire. The crates of produce are colourful and warmly lit, as is the teal awning framing the upper border of the composition. Morris chose a bright and modern palette, synonymous with her body of work and that of the Beaver Hall Group. She painted from sketches, in which she simplified the forms and applied colour in bold, thick patches, visible in the faceless figures and abstracted fruit and vegetables.
Laura Muntz, The Handmaiden (1900)
Laura Muntz, born in Warwickshire, England, and came to Canada as a child with her family to settle on a farm in the backwoods of the Muskoka District. She became a school teacher in Hamilton, Ontario, and in her spare hours took art classes. With money saved from her teaching job she studied for a short time at the South Kensington School of Art, England about 1887. She returned to Canada and spent the next seven years earning money for study in Paris at the Academie Colorossi. Muntz also travelled in Holland and Italy and at the end of seven years returned to Toronto and opened a studio.
Muntz was first exposed to the tenets of Impressionism while undertaking artistic training in Paris from 1891-1898. She then adopted the use of light and open, fluid brushwork in her own compositions. The rich tones of Muntz’s swift brushwork in “Girl with Blue Bowl” (lot 58) creates a sensation of gentleness and warmth, reflecting Muntz’s genuine interest in the aesthetic representation of children. Although sadly childless herself, Muntz lived a life surrounded by children. She was a schoolteacher upon moving to Canada, and later became the caregiver of her deceased sister’s eleven children. Muntz’s depiction of domestic scenes not only reveal a consistent study of her most treasured subjects, women and children, but illustrate the female experience of Canada in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Maud Lewis, Sandy Cove
Maud was born in South Ohio, a community near Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Born disfigured with sloped shoulders and her chin resting on her chest, Maud led a confined but happy home life after she quit school at 14. Physical deformity may have been her lot, but even more tragic was the loss of both her parents within two years. Thankfully, an aunt who lived in Digby took her in. There she would later answer a newspaper ad that would determine the course of her life. A man named Everett Lewis wanted a housekeeper for his cottage in Marshalltown. She married him in 1938 at the age of thirty-four and would never travel more than an hour’s drive from her birthplace. Maud gathered images from her happy childhood and limited excursions in a Model T with Everett to paint cheerful images on dust pans, scallop shells and even on her house. They would settle into a routine where Everett enjoyed peddling and haggling over the paintings Maud would love to paint. The happiness she painted first attracted neighbours, then tourists and eventually even international attention. It started with a Star Weekly newspaper article and then a 1965 CBC Telescope program featuring her unique works. Her notoriety began to bloom and orders came in so fast that the paint hardly had time to dry.
Maud Lewis, Three Black Cats
The simplicity of Maud Lewis’ paintings, brushed initially with scrounged paint from local fishermen onto ubiquitous green boards and postcards, continue to evoke feelings of innocence, of child-like exuberance as enduring as the spring times she loved to paint. Her works, such as “Three Black Cats” (lot 61) and “Sandy Cove” (lot 62) continue to capture audiences intrigued by everyday scenes as diverse as three black cats, hard-working oxen, whimsical butterflies and harbour scenes.
Henrietta Mabel May, Farmstead, Eastern Townships
Following studies at the Art Association of Montreal, Mabel May and fellow graduate, Emily Coonan, travelled to France to study. She and Coonan travelled widely in Europe, visiting galleries, museums and sketching, becoming a devote of the Impressionists. Upon her return to Montreal, and with her fellow AAM graduates, May helped establish the Beaver Hall Group in 1920, and in 1933 she became a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters.
Embracing the francophone tradition of depicting inhabited landscapes, “Farmstead, Eastern Townships” (lot 65) showcases May’s ability to arrange colour to accentuate the weighty mass of the farm structures, while maintaining a sense of lightness in the warm colour palette. Bold strokes of red, ochre and chartreuse imbue the work with warmth, light and vibrancy, highlighting the beauty of the rural scene.
Doris McCarthy, Iceberg & Floes (1998)
Doris McCarthy – lot 8 and lot 87 images and cataloguing
Born in Calgary and raised in Toronto, Doris McCarthy is recognized as one of Canada’s foremost landscape painters. A teacher at both the Ontario College of Art and Central Technical School, McCarthy spent most of her life living and working in Scarborough, Ontario though she enjoyed many painting adventures across Canada and abroad. In some instances, McCarthy painted on site, and other times she took photographs to refer to later in her studio.
Doris McCarthy, Two Boats at Barachois (1934)
Painting mainly in oils and watercolours, McCarthy developed a personal style that was consistently praised for its vitality, boldness and skillful explorations of hard-edged angles, form and colour. “Two Boats at Barachois” (lot 87) demonstrates this confidence and the aptitude of McCarthy’s brush. McCarthy is probably best-known for her Canadian landscapes and her depictions of Arctic icebergs. In 1972, the year of her retirement from teaching, Doris made her first of many trips to the Canadian Arctic. McCarthy was fascinated with the topography of this territory and the new painting opportunities it provided her. Her paintings of icebergs and the Arctic landscape, including “Iceberg & Floes” (lot 8), are considered to be among the artist’s best known and most celebrated works.
