2020 November | Hodgins Art Auctions

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signed lower left; titled on a plaque and label remnants verso

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signed lower left; titled on the backing verso

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signed lower left; titled on the artist’s label verso

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signed lower right; titled on the stretcher verso

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signed lower right; titled & dated verso

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signed, titled & dated verso
Provenance: The Hett Gallery, Edmonton AB

London-born Graham Peacock studied at Goldsmiths School of Art (University of London, 1962-1966), before moving to Edmonton in 1969 to teach at the University of Alberta (retiring in 2008). A member of the New New Painters, the artist identifies with “process painting” or the “fluid school”, as associated with American abstractionist Jackson Pollack. In the early 1980s Peacock developed an inventive and personal painting style that involved freely pouring customized acrylics in layers. By not allowing each layer to fully cure during the process, he created separation and crazing at the surface, revealing the depth and contrast of the layers below.

Graham Peacock has an international exhibition history spanning more than 50 years. A retrospective of the artist’s work was held at The Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton) in 2005: “Graham Peacock at 60 – A Retrospective Exhibition 1980 to 2005”.

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signed lower right; signed & titled verso

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signed & dated lower right; titled & dated lower left

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Exhibited: “Five Degrees of Separation”, Art Gallery of Calgary (founded as the Muttart Public Art Gallery and now encompassed by Contemporary Calgary). This exhibition commemorated the gallery’s 25th anniversary and ran from November 22, 2001 to January 26, 2002.
Provenance: This sculpture was acquired directly from the artist.

This work was inspired by a trip Isla Burns made to the island of Tinos (Cyclades, Greece), in early 2000. This beautiful island is renowned as a place of spiritual pilgrimage, in particular to the holy site of Panagia Megalochari (Our Lady of Great Grace). Burns was fascinated by the tall palm beside the church, topped with a small cluster of fronds. The welded steel “fan” crowning the sculpture “Memsahib” incorporates her memory of this experience. The sculpture additionally includes personal elements that relate to the artist’s life and Indian culture (Burns was born in Calcutta). Notably, the work “cradles” part of a wooden crib from India, and the title references the term used to address “white” (or European) women in India.

Notes:

signed lower right; signed & titled on the stretcher verso
Note: In his artist statement at the time, Li-Leger wrote: “The paintings of this series grew out of my intensive involvement with monoprints, where I improvised and combined various imagery with broad areas of rolled-on saturated colour. Here I have returned to painting in my desire to integrate the spontaneity and liveliness of oriental brushwork that has long inspired and influenced me.”