PROVENANCE
Mayberry Fine Art, Winnipeg
Private Collection
Acquired from the above by the present Private Collection

Guido Molinari was a dominant figure in the history of abstract painting in Canada, an original and innovative artist who was utterly independent. In the months following the 1953 group exhibition Place des artistes in Montreal, in which he participated, Molinari produced a long series of small oil paintings in which he juxtaposed areas of bright colour. Sans titre is a richly hued, vigorous example from this series. The mid-1950s were breakout years for Molinari, when his painting and writing propelled him into the forefront of the Montreal scene. He was exploring a new painterly space, producing works such as this with areas of pure colour, thickly applied with expressionist élan, with soft edges that bleed slightly into each other. Each colour area is held in dynamic tension by the ones next to it in an active, all-over surface. Sans titre is an outstanding work from this painterly, tactile phase in Molinari’s work, before his surfaces would become smooth, his edges hard, and his brushwork minimized in his Stripe and Quantificateur works.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars