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May 10 to June 6, 2003 |
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Painters Eleven - Selected Works from Jack Bush, Tom Hodgson, Alexandra Luke, Ray Mead, Kazuo Nakamura, William Ronald, Harold Town and Walter Yarwood.
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As a collaborative group the Painters Eleven officially existed only from 1953-1959. However, from their very first show in 1953 at Simpsons' in Toronto, and the subsequent five years of exhibiting together, they had a profound impact on the younger artists to follow, as well as curators and collectors in Canada.
The members of Painters Eleven included Jack Bush, Oscar Cahen, Hortense Gordon, Tom Hodgson, Alexandra Luke, Jock Macdonald, Ray Mead, Kazuo Nakamura, William Ronald, Harold Town and Walter Yarwood.
This was not a group with a common manifesto, but with a less revolutionary agenda. They simply wanted to paint in the new less restrictive abstract expressionist style. Their similarity, or unity, was in the idea of showing their work together; finding a venue to do that, and reinforcing each others diversity and individualism. Harold Town stated that they were "sick of being told where to hang, how to hang, and when to hang".
In 1956 the Painters Eleven were invited to show with the American Abstract Artists (AAA) in New York. Reviewing the exhibition, The Village Voice stated "the only surprise... is the lusty showing of eleven Canadian painters from the Toronto area. Borrowing expressionism, as a liberating factor, they prefer to employ it to describe personal experience rather than regional phenomena ...few were unwilling to admit the decisive superiority of the Canadian showing". |
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Jack Bush
"French Facade", 1957
oil on canvas, 20 x 27 in.
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Alexandra Luke
"Untitled", 1952
watercolour on paper, 9" x 11"
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Alexandra Luke
"Untitled", 1950
watercolour on paper, 21" x 14 3/4"
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Alexandra Luke
"Untitled", 1950
watercolour on paper 9 3/4' x 13 3/4"
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Alexandra Luke
"Untitled", 1950
watercolour on paper, dyptych, 18 3/4" x 25"
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Alexandra Luke
"Untitled", 1948
watercolour on paper, 9 3/4" x 14 3/8"
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Kazuo Nakamura
"Suspended Still Life", 1972
oil on canvas, 19" x 24"
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William Ronald
"Toys", 1997
watercolour on paper, 12 x 16 in.
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Harold Town
"Conversations between Clowns", 1953
oil on board, 30 x 47 in.
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