2024 December | Hodgins Art Auctions

Notes:

signed lower right

Saskatchewan born artist Bob Boyer began his artistic career in the late 1960s, and spent much of his career based in Regina. While pursuing his artistic practice, he also fulfilled many impactful roles in Regina’s artistic community, spending time as an art teacher in the early 1970s, before moving on to the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, and eventually becoming the Head of the Department of Indian Art at the University of Regina, holding this position from 1980 to 1998). Boyer’s work was influenced and guided by his connections to his Métis heritage, and he used his work to make strong political statements. His most recognized series, referred to as “Blanket Statements”, made use of flannel blankets, in reference to smallpox blankets, to address political injustices and the treatment of Indigenous peoples in Canada.

The early 1990s saw Boyer move away from politicized works and focus more on the celebration and perpetuation of Indigenous culture. Around 1992, he began to make use of burlap as a support material for his works (as he used here), preferring the texture. Boyer’s early exposure to Canadian abstraction and the colour-field painting movement is evident, intermingling with the symbolism and geometry influenced by Indigenous history and culture.

Notes:

signed, titled and dated lower left; signed, titled and dated verso

Notes:

signed in syllabics lower left

Notes:

signed lower right

Notes:

signed lower right; signed, titled and dated verso

Notes:

signed and dated lower right; signed, titled and dated verso

Notes:

each signed and titled on the matting below the image

Note: this lot includes Brown’s book “Old Man’s Garden” about flowers/plants in Western Canada.

“Old Man’s Garden”
Brown, Annora
Published by J.M. Dent and Sons (Canada) Limited, Toronto, First Edition, First Printing, February 1954.

Notes:

signed, titled, dated and editioned lower left

Notes:

signed, titled, dated and editioned lower left

Notes:

signed lower right; signed and titled verso

Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist.