2018 May | Hodgins Art Auctions

Notes:

signed
Provenance: This painting was purchased by the consignor directly from the artist, with the assistance of Sapp’s interpreter Smith Atimoyoo, on March 10, 1967, at The Battleford Indian and Metis Friendship Centre (North Battleford, SK) . It has been in the same collection since.

Note: This rare, early work is signed “Allan Sapp”, as Sapp’s works were typically signed prior to 1968.

In 1966, Allen Sapp entered the North Battleford clinic of Dr. Allan Gonor hoping to sell him a painting. Gonor, who often saw the artist walking along the streets of North Battleford with his bundle of paintings, had purchased from him before. This time, he encouraged Sapp to paint what he knew, to paint him a picture of his reservation, giving him some money for supplies. Sapp returned the next day with the painting “Red Pheasant Farmyard”. A long-term partnership and friendship soon blossomed. Dr. Gonor arranged for Sapp to meet weekly with Wynona Mulcaster, then art professor at the University of Saskatchewan, driving Sapp to Saskatoon every Sunday during the winter of 1967 to meet with his new advisor. This was a pivotal, formative year in the artist’s development and career. In 1968, Sapp had his first professional exhibits – at a gallery in Montreal, and on the grounds of Mulcaster’s home. An exhibition at the Mendel Art Gallery followed in 1969, and was viewed by 13,000 people; within a few years, Sapp’s work was being exhibited in New York.

Allen Sapp’s grandmother (Nokum) is a favourite subject of the artist, whether she is feeding the chickens, preparing a hide, or making bannok (as in this work). In the Cree culture, it is traditional for grandparents to take a strong role in raising their grandchildren, though Sapp’s grandparents, Albert and Maggie Soonias, were even more involved due to his mother’s poor health. They continued to raise Allen after her death. It is his grandmother who had the most profound influence on him. She was also the first to encourage the budding artist, “Keep on drawing – some day you will be very famous”. Sapp said of his grandmother: “I know where I came from and for many years I have known where I am going. But this wasn’t just a stroke of luck – it began with the love and support of my family and my beloved grandmother, my Nokum.” Maggie Soonias passed away in 1959, well before her likeness appeared in vivid scenes such as this. Sapp then explained, “When I started to paint life as I remembered it on the reserve, I didn’t need any pictures to remind me. It was as if my mind was a camera and would place before me pictures of places and events of many years ago while growing up on the Red Pheasant Reserve.”

*Excerpts from “I Heard the Drums” (Sapp; Stoddart Publishing Co. Ltd., 1996).
*Additional references from “A Cree Life, The Art of Allen Sapp” (Warner/Bradshaw; J. J. Douglas Ltd., 1977).

Notes:

signed

Note: One Gun came from well-respected lineage, as grandson of The Sun, a famous warrior chief. He was quite prominent himself – a prosperous cattle owner who was very involved with ceremonial life and his community. One Gun and his wife sponsored five Sun Dances; he owned a number of medicine pipes; belonged to numerous hidden societies; and served his Tribal Council for 30 years. One Gun’s teepee was well known at the Calgary Stampede (from its inception), and was always well attended. The photo archives at the University of Lethbridge include a photo of Nicholas de Grandmaison sitting with One Gun in front of his teepee in Gleichen in 1944, perhaps on one of his sketching visits. Nicholas de Grandmaison sketched One Gun on several occasions during the 1940s and 1950s.

Reference: pp. 74, and 109 “History in Their Blood: The Indian Portraits of Nicholas de Grandmaison” (Dempsey; Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 1982).

Notes:

signed
Provenance: Masters Gallery, Calgary AB (label verso)

Note: Beginning in 1930, during a trip to The Pas, in northern Manitoba, de Grandmaison began what would become his life’s work, the creation of a visual record of members of the Plains First Nations. The portraits of his subjects spanned more than four decades, and de Grandmaison was known to sketch a favourite subject on several occasions. In this case, the artist is recorded to have painted Wolf Tail several times between 1930 and 1960. Wolf Tail (Apisoh’soyi), was a Peigan healer and herbalist, and did for a time work with the Indian Department.

Reference: pp. 50, 51, 104, and 107 “History in Their Blood: The Indian Portraits of Nicholas de Grandmaison” (Dempsey; Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 1982).

Notes:

signed & titled verso; dated on the gallery label verso
Provenance: Bau-Xi Gallery, Toronto ON / Vancouver BC

Ted Godwin, the youngest member of the Regina Five, is known for his early abstract expressionist paintings, and for his formalist “Tartan series” (grid-like abstracts with interwoven bands of paint). His later work, influenced by his love of fly fishing, appears at first viewing to be representational. A reading beyond the surface of the canvas, however, reveals his deep interest in the abstract – the colour and patterns evident within nature. These streambank paintings, whether of his beloved Bow River in Calgary, the waterways of Eastern Canada, or the National Parks of the North, are all gesturally bold and colourful, typically from a low perspective, exploring the interplay of tangled shrubs, trees, rocks and water along the water’s edge.

Notes:

signed, titled & dated

Notes:

signed & dated; titled indistinctly on label remnants verso

Provenance:
Loan from the artist to Jean-Paul Riopelle, 1948-1971
Galerie Gilles Corbeil, Montreal
Private Collection, Montreal
Heffel Auction, Vancouver, Spring 2010
Private Collection, Toronto

Exhibited:75 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Trente-trois tableaux de Pierre Gauvreau, November 15-30, 1947, catalogue #24 | Galerie Nina Dausset, Paris, Rixes, January – July 1951, traveling to Galerie Marcel Evrard, Lille, Galerie Lou Cosyn, Brussels, and Galerie Springer, Berlin

Notes:

Alexander Caldwell is an artist inspired by the pervasiveness of geometry found throughout the natural world. His sculptures are considered and balanced responses to both materials and environment, and he is known for his precision and craftmanship in transforming common materials into extraordinary objects. In “Anomaly”, Caldwell plays with the viewers expectations of repetition and predictability within the emergent, bubble-like form, by confining the overall shape of the hemispheres into the organization of a square. In doing so he explores the dynamics between man and nature, and the tension between randomness and order.

For Caldwell, colour is an element equally important to shape and form, and in this work, the interplay between the elements is key: the blue colour, in combination with the organic shape, suggests water droplets or a rippling pool of water. The series of circles within a circle offers a sense of movement while at the same time being stationary, creating an optical illusion that is stimulating and playful. In his skillful crafting of the mirror-like surface, Caldwell’s interest was that the sculpture’s own reflection be repeated to infinity. The overall effect of the work, is one of harmony and balance.

Notes:

signed & titled

Notes:

signed & dated
Note: English born, 18 year old Gissing arrived in Calgary in 1913, and spent the next 10 years
working at various ranches between Peace River and Mexico, while he sketched and drew. When Gissing made the decision to become an artist in 1923, art in Alberta was at its dawn, and limited to visiting artists. Through R. L. Harvey, Gissing was introduced to Leonard Richmond, a prominent British artist painting locally for the CPR. Impressed by Gissings work, Richmond gave Gissing his first formal instruction, encouraging him to work in pastels. Interest in art, and the art community itself, grew between 1926 and 1929. During this time, Gissing’s work impressed Ernie Richardson (of the Calgary Stampede & Exhibition), who granted Gissing a one-man show (to be held in February 1929 at the Calgary Public Library in Central Park). Gissing threw himself into his work that year, ultimately selecting 52 of his favourite pastels and watercolours for this show. The exhibit was received with such enthusiasm that a second exhibition was held later that year, by art dealer Jack Booth. Shortly following these early successes that launched his career, Gissing transitioned to oils, leaving behind only a few of his rare pastels works.

Reference: “Roland Gissing: The Peoples’ Painter”, Foran & Houlton, The University of Calgary Press; 1988

Notes:

signed & dated
Inscribed verso “#29 – Dear Nancy – This painting is one of the best examples of Janet’s work. Please keep it for display only for the next show – Not for Sale”