signed & titled on the stretcher verso; dated on the gallery labels
Provenance: Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver BC; Art Rental Service of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto ON
Exhibited: “Ted Godwin: The Tartan Years 1967-1976″, The Nickel Arts Museum, Calgary AB (#18)
Note: A copy of the exhibition catalogue accompanies this painting; this work is illustrated on page 6.
The Tartan Series paintings (1967-1976), metaphorically signifying the complicated, disorganized nature of life, secured Godwin’s place as a leading modern abstract painter in Canada.
Godwin produced his famous ‘”Tartans” by layering many transparent washes of colour on large canvases laid out on the studio floor, rolling a variety of paint colours in grid-like patterns over their surfaces. The resulting works can be compared to a weaving, with the overlapping of the warp and weft. Each small overlapping area could stand alone as a small colour field painting. Curator Ann Davis states, “I see Godwin’s overriding concern in the ‘Tartans’ as being a search for order without a loss of spontaneity.”
Godwin’s work has been collected by major institutions across Canada, including The National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the University of Regina, and the Confederation Art Centre.
Ted Godwin was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy in 1974; he was made Professor Emeritus and received the Award of Excellence from the Alberta College of Art in 2001; he was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Regina in 2001; and received the Order of Canada in the summer of 2004.
