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ONLINE AUCTION
Important Canadian Art
November 4 - 25, 2021

November 04 - November 25, 2021

LOT DETAILS
         
         
         
         

This session is closed for bidding.
Current bid: $30,000 CAD
Bidding History
Paddle # Date Amount

21271 25-Nov-2021 12:33:04 PM $30,000

The bidding history list updated on: Thursday, March 28, 2024 10:37:55

LOT 0213

AANFM AUTO CAS QMG RCA SAAVQ SAPQ
1924 - 2001
Canadian

Sans titre
oil on canvas
signed and dated 1947 and on verso signed
18 x 24 in, 45.7 x 61 cm

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

Sold for: $37,250

Preview at: Heffel Montreal

PROVENANCE
Estate of the Artist
Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal
Private Collection, Montreal


This work by Marcelle Ferron is an outstanding example of her early practice, produced just a year after being introduced to Paul-Émile Borduas and joined the Automatists, before she became a signatory of the Refus global manifesto in 1948. Having just left Quebec City’s École des beaux-arts, disillusioned with its conservatism, she found a ready home in the new language of abstraction that was being developed.

The influence of Borduas is immediately felt here: dense tessellations of pigment are applied using a palette knife in a close-knit flurry of smeared strokes. However, it is Ferron’s skillful use of colour that defines the work, dominated by autumnal yellows, deep magentas, and mossy greens. The overall thrust is initially horizontal, perhaps suggesting a blur of movement; but a closer look reveals that the dense clutter of colour seems to emerge from the background rather than float atop it, forming a rolling burst of energy that swells outwards from the center of the canvas. Glaring white and the dimmed black tones glint off the facets of colour, serving to further animate and illuminate the body of the painting. This play of light and colour suggests the interest in stained glass that she would develop in the following years while she was living in Paris. Ferron was evidently fond of the work, as it remained in the artist’s personal collection, hanging in the living room of her Outremont residence after her return to Montreal.

This painting appears in the NFB documentary Marcelle Ferron by Monique Crouillère, 1989, minutes 4:40 - 4:50 and 6:42 - 6:47

https://www.nfb.ca/film/ferron_marcelle/.


All prices are in Canadian Dollars


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