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Harold Barling Town, OSA, RCA (1924-1994), HAPPY BIRTHDAY, 1959, oil and Lucite on hardboard, 48 x 4
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Description
Harold Barling Town, OSA, RCA (1924-1994), CANADIAN
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, 1959
oil and Lucite on hardboard
signed, titled, dated and inscribed verso; titled "Happy Picture #1" on typed label verso
48 x 48 in — 121.9 x 121.9 cm
Provenance:
Estate of the artist;
Gifted to Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB;
Deaccessioned to benefit art purchases at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery
Exhibited:
Painters Eleven: J. Bush, H.M. Gordon, T. Hodgson, A. Luke, J. Macdonald, R. Mead, K. Nakamura, H. Town, W. Yarwood, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Stable Gallery, Montreal, QC, 9 Apr-8 May 1960.
Harold Town’s mastery of drawing and colour allowed him to make seemingly effortless artistic leaps. Abundant in talent, he never took the easy route, he never wanted to be trapped by style – his or another’s – and in his drive would challenge his skill head-on at full speed.
From the late 1940s Town exhibited steadily in Toronto and by 1954 showed in the debut exhibition of Painters Eleven. He also exhibited internationally at the Venice Biennale and other international surveys of contemporary art in Europe and the United States.
Happy Birthday is the work of an artist using a language of non-representational abstraction. In this primal genesis, each of Town’s gestures are declarative, yet none are as bold as the acidic yellow he uses for a background. Counterintuitively, Town’s other warm colours – orange and red – advance from the yellow. Most profoundly, his ultramarine that would conventionally ‘recede,’ here lifts off the picture plane into our space.
Estimate: $20,000–30,000
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, 1959
oil and Lucite on hardboard
signed, titled, dated and inscribed verso; titled "Happy Picture #1" on typed label verso
48 x 48 in — 121.9 x 121.9 cm
Provenance:
Estate of the artist;
Gifted to Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB;
Deaccessioned to benefit art purchases at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery
Exhibited:
Painters Eleven: J. Bush, H.M. Gordon, T. Hodgson, A. Luke, J. Macdonald, R. Mead, K. Nakamura, H. Town, W. Yarwood, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Stable Gallery, Montreal, QC, 9 Apr-8 May 1960.
Harold Town’s mastery of drawing and colour allowed him to make seemingly effortless artistic leaps. Abundant in talent, he never took the easy route, he never wanted to be trapped by style – his or another’s – and in his drive would challenge his skill head-on at full speed.
From the late 1940s Town exhibited steadily in Toronto and by 1954 showed in the debut exhibition of Painters Eleven. He also exhibited internationally at the Venice Biennale and other international surveys of contemporary art in Europe and the United States.
Happy Birthday is the work of an artist using a language of non-representational abstraction. In this primal genesis, each of Town’s gestures are declarative, yet none are as bold as the acidic yellow he uses for a background. Counterintuitively, Town’s other warm colours – orange and red – advance from the yellow. Most profoundly, his ultramarine that would conventionally ‘recede,’ here lifts off the picture plane into our space.
Estimate: $20,000–30,000
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Harold Barling Town, OSA, RCA (1924-1994), CANADIAN
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, 1959
oil and Lucite on hardboard
signed, titled, dated and inscribed verso; titled "Happy Picture #1" on typed label verso
48 x 48 in — 121.9 x 121.9 cm
Provenance:
Estate of the artist;
Gifted to Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB;
Deaccessioned to benefit art purchases at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery
Exhibited:
Painters Eleven: J. Bush, H.M. Gordon, T. Hodgson, A. Luke, J. Macdonald, R. Mead, K. Nakamura, H. Town, W. Yarwood, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Stable Gallery, Montreal, QC, 9 Apr-8 May 1960.
Harold Town’s mastery of drawing and colour allowed him to make seemingly effortless artistic leaps. Abundant in talent, he never took the easy route, he never wanted to be trapped by style – his or another’s – and in his drive would challenge his skill head-on at full speed.
From the late 1940s Town exhibited steadily in Toronto and by 1954 showed in the debut exhibition of Painters Eleven. He also exhibited internationally at the Venice Biennale and other international surveys of contemporary art in Europe and the United States.
Happy Birthday is the work of an artist using a language of non-representational abstraction. In this primal genesis, each of Town’s gestures are declarative, yet none are as bold as the acidic yellow he uses for a background. Counterintuitively, Town’s other warm colours – orange and red – advance from the yellow. Most profoundly, his ultramarine that would conventionally ‘recede,’ here lifts off the picture plane into our space.
Estimate: $20,000–30,000
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, 1959
oil and Lucite on hardboard
signed, titled, dated and inscribed verso; titled "Happy Picture #1" on typed label verso
48 x 48 in — 121.9 x 121.9 cm
Provenance:
Estate of the artist;
Gifted to Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB;
Deaccessioned to benefit art purchases at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery
Exhibited:
Painters Eleven: J. Bush, H.M. Gordon, T. Hodgson, A. Luke, J. Macdonald, R. Mead, K. Nakamura, H. Town, W. Yarwood, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Stable Gallery, Montreal, QC, 9 Apr-8 May 1960.
Harold Town’s mastery of drawing and colour allowed him to make seemingly effortless artistic leaps. Abundant in talent, he never took the easy route, he never wanted to be trapped by style – his or another’s – and in his drive would challenge his skill head-on at full speed.
From the late 1940s Town exhibited steadily in Toronto and by 1954 showed in the debut exhibition of Painters Eleven. He also exhibited internationally at the Venice Biennale and other international surveys of contemporary art in Europe and the United States.
Happy Birthday is the work of an artist using a language of non-representational abstraction. In this primal genesis, each of Town’s gestures are declarative, yet none are as bold as the acidic yellow he uses for a background. Counterintuitively, Town’s other warm colours – orange and red – advance from the yellow. Most profoundly, his ultramarine that would conventionally ‘recede,’ here lifts off the picture plane into our space.
Estimate: $20,000–30,000
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