2017 May | Hodgins Art Auctions

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signed, titled & dated verso
Provenance: Mira Goddard Gallery, Toronto, ON (label verso)
McEwen began painting in 1946 while he was a pharmacy student at the University of Montreal, though he was already profoundly interested in poetry and art and actively painting by this point in his life. His early Salon and gallery submissions were well-received by the artistic community, and he struck up a friendship with Paul-Emile Borduas, who encouraged McEwen in his artistic journey, suggesting he visit Jean Paul Riopelle in Paris. McEwen spent three years in France and Spain, touring museums, painting and exhibiting. He was influenced by the Automatistes in their spontaneity, by the French schools of Impressionism and Lyrical Abstraction, and by the non-figural abstraction that characterized the work of the American artists of that era.

McEwen’s work remained distinct – his compositions were experiments exploring colour, light and texture. His works from the 1960s show the artist’s work at its maturity, skillfully layering opaque and translucent paint in a sensuous and poetic manner. Of his work, McEwan has said:
“There are two ways to judge a painting…One is based on criteria and theories of art. The second is based on sensations we get from the picture. I paint the second way.”

In 1987, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts presented a major retrospective of his work. Major exhibitions have also been held by the National Gallery of Canada and the Musee d’art Contemporain de Montreal.

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impressed with signature and edition number

Of Romanian birth and Jewish faith, Etrog survived the Nazi pogroms of the Second World War as a child, later emigrating to Tel Aviv with his family. It is here, in 1958, where he had his first solo exhibition. This exhibition was impressive enough to earn the young artist a scholarship to the Brooklyn Museum of Art. While in New York, he met prominent Toronto art patrons who championed his work back home, gaining him a show at Gallery Moos in 1959. In 1963 he became a Canadian citizen and by 1966 he was already representing Canada on the international stage.

Etrog became an important figure, at the cutting edge of the modern art movement in Canada. He was a multifaceted artist: a poet, writer, dramatist, filmmaker and philosopher. Etrog was also the designer of the Genie Award (originally named the Etrog Award). Most would recognize his large public installations, often passing them unaware while about their daily routines. With elements that are figurative, mechanical, and architectural, these striking works mirror their surroundings; they are the perfect fusion of the human form and the industrialized world. Etrog’s public sculptures dot the Canadian urban landscape, with innumerable works all over Toronto, and examples in Windsor, Stratford, Montreal and Calgary. Etrog’s international recognition is also broad, with installations as far as Los Angeles, Paris and Seoul. His works are included in many important public collections such as Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim in New York, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

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Provenance: Masters Gallery, Calgary, AB (label verso); The Cahen Archives, Toronto, ON
Reference: FAWC 349

Born in Denmark, Cahen studied painting, design and illustration all over Europe before earning a Masters Degree at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. He obtained a teaching position at Rotter School and worked as a graphic designer, but his family (of Jewish faith, with a father who was an anti-Nazi activist) was forced to flee Europe. Escaping from Prague to England just 12 days before occupation, 24 year old Cahen was among many classified as enemy aliens and shipped to Canada. His artistic contacts in Canada helped secure his release and he was soon back at work.

In the 1940s, Cahen became involved with a group of like-minded, avant-garde artists in Toronto, In 1953 he was included in the pivotal Abstracts at Home Exhibition. Shortly after, he and ten other artists formed the Painters Eleven group and held their first exhibition at the Roberts Gallery in Toronto in 1954. This diverse group of painters shared a singular commitment to abstraction, at a time when it was received with negativity and apprehension by the conservative art community. A few exhibitions later, including one with the American Abstract Artists in New York, and the Painters Eleven were successful. Exhibitions of their work, organized in part by the National Gallery of Canada, toured the country from 1957-1961. Unfortunately, Cahen died in a car accident in 1956, bringing an influential career to a premature end, though his contribution and that of the Painters Eleven endures.

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signed, titled & dated
Provenance: Marlborough-Godard Gallery, Toronto, ON; Meredith Long Contemporary Gallery, New York, NY (labels verso)

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signed, titled & dated

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signed
Provenance: Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, ON (label verso)

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signed recto; titled verso and on the gallery label; inscribed verso with Casson’s Toronto address and “1936 Travelling Show”
Provenance: Masters Gallery, Calgary, AB; Former collection of A. J. Casson

“If I have to define my own contribution to the Canadian Art Scene, what was particularly mine were really the rural villages and houses. In a way, it is a record of a disappearing society and a disappearing world. For me it was always an Ontario quest.” – A. J. Casson.

Casson, the youngest member of the Group of Seven, was introduced to the original members at the Arts and Letters Club in 1920 by Franklin Carmichael. While he soon became a regular at the Club, and an invited contributor to the Group shows, it was not until 1925 that he was invited to sketch with the Group on a trip to Lake Superior. The following year, Casson accepted the Group’s invitation to join them, bringing the membership back to seven, several years after Frank Johnston’s departure. In 1926, Casson also joined the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, a prestigious accomplishment for an artist only 28 years old. It is particularly remarkable that the young Casson was able to gain the acceptance and respect of both the old and new worlds of Canadian art society.

While an important member of the Group of Seven, Casson was always somewhat removed from the Group, and preferred to set his work apart from that of other members. He was most aligned with Carmichael, his mentor and friend. The artists shared a similar vision and interests, and additionally, both worked full-time (a practice Casson continued until his retirement). Yet there came a time when Casson even stopped painting with Carmichael, a step he needed to take in order to be able to fully realize his own, distinct artistic style.

Today, Casson’s work is easily recognizable and well-loved by Canadian art collectors. Casson’s design background is evident in his graceful and streamlined compositions, and in his adept manipulation of pattern, light and colour. These elements come together to create landscapes that seem to move. A notable hallmark of Casson’s work is “his interpretation of the subtle variations of summertime green”. This painting exemplifies not only Casson’s distinct sensibility but the subject matter most dear to his heart. Casson spent much of the 1930s painting the gentler, civilized, southern Ontario landscapes, preserving for posterity “the pastoral pioneering Ontario that has vanished in the face of a noisier urban world.”

*Excerpts from: “The McMichael Canadian Art Collection” (1989) and “A.J. Casson” (Art Gallery of Windsor; 1978).

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signed, titled & dated

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signed & titled

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signed & dated