John Meredith 1933 - 2000

The Isaacs Gallery, Toronto

Private Collection, Toronto

In her catalogue for the Art Gallery of Ontario's 1974 John Meredith exhibition, Marie Fleming wrote that the artist's "work from the late fifties through the late sixties shows an increasing multiplicity of allusions ('what I strive for in my paintings is not to say one thing, but to say many different things') and, over a period, a metamorphosis of form, whereby an abstract stripe can take on first vegetal and then human connotations."

Indeed, the shapes and configurations articulated here are at once architectural, organic, cosmological, corporeal, and geometric. Intimately engaging with the medium, Meredith would purposefully smudge and soften the still-wet line of the ink, as Fleming writes, "giving a jagged electric quality, a sense of movement, or even of speed."

This vividly-expressive, intricate drawing renders, through Meredith's adept draughtsmanship, a mandala-like image that is highly detailed, yet broadly open to infinite interpretation.

Literature: 
Marie Fleming, John Meredith: Fifteen Years, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1974