Paul-Émile Borduas 1905 - 1960

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 CAD

bidding is closed

Description

Paul-Émile Borduas
La Volée
1954

signed and dated lower right Borduas 54; titled on a gallery label on the reverse
ink and gouache on paper, mounted on card
35.6 by 42.6 cm.
14 by 16 ¾ in.

Provenance

Dominion Gallery, Montreal

Private Collection, Toronto

Literature

François-Marc Gagnon, Paul-Émile Borduas, Montreal, 1988, p. 309

Catalogue Note

La Volée was painted in New York in 1954, where Borduas, the acknowledged leader of the Automatistes, worked for two years, breaking with Surrealism, the basis of his art to that point, and absorbing some influences from Abstract Expressionism.

He exhibited both oils and watercolours separately and the critic Stuart Preston reviewed Borduas' watercolours:

...they carry delicacy of form and colour to a fastidious point, but their chief interest lies in the skill with which the sharp or fluffy shapes are painted... in Oriental art one finds a similar concern with calligraphic design and Borduas is a virtuoso draftsman as well as being a tasteful colourist.

This work could have been in the show.