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LOT 008

AANFM ARCA OC QMG
1928 - 2021
Canadian

Menace
oil on canvas
signed and dated 1963 and on verso signed, titled, dated and inscribed "No: 7 Ramat Gan"
25 1/2 x 32 in, 64.8 x 81.3 cm

Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000 CAD

Sold for: $37,250

Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave

PROVENANCE
Dorothy Cameron Gallery Ltd., Toronto
Private Collection, Ontario

LITERATURE
Wanda Nanibush and Georgiana Uhlyarik, Rita Letendre: Fire & Light, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2017, pages 13 and 14


Rita Letendre is of Abenaki, Mohawk and Québécois heritage, and she studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal. She was influenced by Paul-Émile Borduas and the Automatists, who expressed intuition and emotion through the act of painting. She stated: “I felt that Borduas and the Automatistes were creating a brand-new world, and I was fascinated by the freedom of thought and action they showed. I wanted to be a great painter…to make my contribution. It also seemed I had something to say, an overpowering rage that nothing could hold back.” Letendre was committed to abstraction, having, as she said, “discovered that the soul of a painting was not in the object represented but in the way it transmitted a sort of internalized emotion.”

During the 1960s, Letendre created gestural, emotional works like Menace, which embodied the plastic qualities of paint - texture, forms, lines and their relationship within the painting. Colour here is rich and, as was typical of this time, electric hues are contrasted with a black colour field. The paint, applied with bold knifework, builds a textural surface in which layers of paint breathe through each other. Lyrical and whirling with dynamism, Menace is a powerful work from Letendre’s early 1960s period.


Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000 CAD

All prices are in Canadian Dollars


Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information posted, errors and omissions may occur. All bids are subject to our Terms and Conditions of Business. Bidders must ensure they have satisfied themselves with the condition of the Lot prior to bidding. Condition reports are available upon request.