Yves Gaucher 1934 - 2000

The series of paintings of which this brilliant canvas is a part followed closely upon Gaucher's Homage to Webern prints of 1963, the Point Counterpoint print of 1965, and the Danse Carré paintings of 1964 and 1965. Gaucher called these paintings Signals or Silences. They were horizontal in format, rather than diamond-shaped, and they led the artist into the Raga and Grey on Grey paintings that run through the 1960s. Rigourously symmetrical and yet spacious and at ease despite the bold structure, these works, and this painting particularly, represent a peak in Gaucher's remarkable career. Roald Nasgaard writes: "A most palpable sensuousness is furthermore suggested by the illusions which play on the surface because of the relative location of colours in space, vibration of boundaries between contrasting hues of similar light intensity, or other effects brought about by the interaction of colour."