Jean Albert McEwen 1923 - 1999

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 CAD

bidding is closed

Description

Jean Albert McEwen
Deux bleus, plages vertes
1979

signed and dated lower right McEwen '79; signed, titled and dated by the artist on a strip of canvas affixed to the stretcher and titled and dated on a gallery label on the reverse
oil on canvas
182.9 by 152.4 cm.
72 by 60 in.

Provenance

Galerie d'art Vincent, Ottawa

Sold, Sotheby's Toronto, November, 2005, lot 129

Private Collection, Toronto

Catalogue Note

McEwen was one of Canada's pioneers in modern art. Although he was largely self-taught, both Borduas and Riopelle were strong influences. He explored non-figurative colour and spatial relationships and after a trip to Paris in 1951, he devoted himself to the exploration of abstract colour.

Here, rather than McEwen's normal vertical median line dividing his canvas into vertical parts, he has used a horizontal separation for the blues and then two verticals to separate them from the green sections. The central composition is cushioned by a fluffy, downy, white border.