Yves Gaucher 1934 - 2000

Galerie Agnès Lefort, Montreal

Private Collection, Ontario

Gaucher's great gray paintings were the subject of a large exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London from December 9, 1969 to January 11, 1970. They had received international attention and acclaim in the contemporary Canadian show, Canada 101, in 1968 at the Edinburgh Festival.

The paintings emerged from Gaucher's pre-occupation with colour theory and the work of Joseph Albers in particular. But having gone through huge monochromatic canvases with a few thin lines placed with exceptional care and balance, Gaucher focussed on the colour gray, which at the degree of abstraction that he was considering it in, contained all the other colours. For the artist the subtlest tint was the goal of his search. Indeed, it was often difficult to see the difference between a green-gray and a blue-gray without putting the two canvases side by side.