Painters Eleven
Encyclopedia
Painters Eleven was a collective of abstract art
ists active in Canada
from 1954 to 1960.
, the Canadian Group of Painters
and the Eastern Group of Painters
. The Canadian public often regarded modernist movements such as Cubism
, Surrealism
and Abstract Expressionism
as bizarre and subversive. The acquisition of modernist paintings - even Impressionist works – by public galleries was invariably a source of controversy. In Quebec
, Paul-Émile Borduas
and Jean-Paul Riopelle
spearheaded the modernist collective known as Les Automatistes
, which began having exhibitions as early as 1941. However, their artistic influence was not quickly felt in English Canada, or indeed much beyond Montreal
.
, Jack Bush
, Oscar Cahén
, Hortense Gordon, Tom Hodgson, Alexandra Luke, Jock Macdonald
, Ray Mead
, Kazuo Nakamura
, William Ronald
, Harold Town
and Walter Yarwood, dubbed themselves Painters Eleven and held their first exhibition at the Roberts Gallery in Toronto
in 1954. The ehibition, arranged by Jack Bush, was the first major commercial exhibition of abstract expressionist art in Toronto. Unlike the Group of Seven
whose members' work evolved along parallel lines, Painters Eleven shared no common artistic vision apart from a commitment to abstraction. This was reflected in the diversity of the group's members. Decades separated the youngest from the eldest, and before they sold their paintings they made their living as freelance commercial artists or worked in advertising and as art teachers. Two had studied at summer schools conducted by the American abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann
and William Ronald "sat in" on his classes, while others were graduates of the Ontario College of Art, and still others were self-taught. Within the group itself, the artistic center of gravity seems to have been Oscar Cahén, a gifted European émigré who became well-known as an illustrator for a number of national magazines. At least three members of the group - Bush, Ronald, and Town - earned international reputations.
In Canada's conservative art world their first exhibition was met with confusion and disdain, typical of new art movements throughout history. By their third exhibition, in 1957, they had established abstract expresionism in Canada. Painters Eleven attained U.S. exposure with a successful exhibition in 1956 with the American Abstract Artists
at the Riverside Gallery in New York
, and were praised by the influential critic Clement Greenberg
on a visit he paid to Toronto in 1957. In the Canadian press, the group's most ardent supporters were art critic Robert Fulford and [art writer] Pearl McCarthy of the Globe and Mail. Eventually, the group's numbers were reduced by death and defection (Cahén was killed in a car accident in 1956, Ronald resigned in 1957) and the group formally disbanded in 1960.
Abstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...
ists active in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
from 1954 to 1960.
History
Since the 1920s, artists in English Canada had been heavily influenced by the landscape painting of the Group of SevenGroup of Seven (artists)
The Group of Seven, sometimes known as the Algonquin school, were a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920-1933, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael , Lawren Harris , A. Y. Jackson , Franz Johnston , Arthur Lismer , J. E. H. MacDonald , and Frederick Varley...
, the Canadian Group of Painters
Canadian Group of Painters
The Canadian Group of Painters was a collective of 28 painters from across Canada which came together as group in 1933. They succeeded the disbanded Group of Seven, whose paintings of the Canadian wilderness had been a strong influence on Canadian art....
and the Eastern Group of Painters
Eastern Group of Painters
The Eastern Group of Painters was a Canadian artists collective founded in 1938 in Montreal, Quebec. The group included Montreal artists whose common interest was painting and an art for art's sake aesthetic, not the espousal of a nationalist theory as was the case with the Group of Seven or the...
. The Canadian public often regarded modernist movements such as Cubism
Cubism
Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...
, Surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
and Abstract Expressionism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
as bizarre and subversive. The acquisition of modernist paintings - even Impressionist works – by public galleries was invariably a source of controversy. In Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Paul-Émile Borduas
Paul-Émile Borduas
Paul-Émile Borduas was a Canadian painter known for his abstract paintings. He was also an activist for the separation of church and state, especially for art, in Quebec.- Biography :...
and Jean-Paul Riopelle
Jean-Paul Riopelle
Jean-Paul Riopelle, was a painter and sculptor from Quebec, Canada.-Biography:Born in Montreal, he studied under Paul-Émile Borduas in the 1940s and was a member of Les Automatistes movement. He was one of the signers of the Refus global manifesto...
spearheaded the modernist collective known as Les Automatistes
Les Automatistes
Les Automatistes were a group of Québécois artistic dissidents from Montreal, Quebec. The movement was founded in the early 1940s by painter Paul-Émile Borduas. "Les Automatistes" were so called because they were influenced by Surrealism and its theory of automatism...
, which began having exhibitions as early as 1941. However, their artistic influence was not quickly felt in English Canada, or indeed much beyond Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
.
Formation
In 1953, eleven abstract painters from OntarioOntario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Jack Bush
Jack Bush
Jack Bush was a Canadian abstract expressionist painter, born in Toronto, Ontario in 1909 and he died there 24 January 1977...
, Oscar Cahén
Oscar Cahén
Oscar Cahén was a Canadian painter and illustrator. Cahén is best known as a member of Painters Eleven a group of abstract artists active in Toronto from 1954-1960.-Biography:...
, Hortense Gordon, Tom Hodgson, Alexandra Luke, Jock Macdonald
Jock Macdonald
Jock Macdonald was a member of Painters Eleven , whose goal was to promote abstract art in Canada.-Early life:He was born in May 1897 in Thurso, Scotland...
, Ray Mead
Ray Mead
Ray Mead was a Canadian abstract expressionist painter and a founding member of the artists collective Painters Eleven. Born in Watford, UK, Mead moved to Hamilton, Ontario in 1946. He worked continuously until his death in 1998 in Toronto...
, Kazuo Nakamura
Kazuo Nakamura
Kazuo Nakamura was a Japanese-Canadian painter and sculptor and a founding member of the Toronto-based Painters Eleven group in the 1950s.-Life:...
, William Ronald
William Ronald
William Ronald, R.C.A. William Ronald, R.C.A. (August 13, 1926 – February 9, 1998) William Ronald, R.C.A. (August 13, 1926 – February 9, 1998) (born William Ronald Smith, was an important Canadian painter, best known as the founder of the influential Canadian abstract art group...
, Harold Town
Harold Town
Harold Town was a Canadian abstract painter. He is best known as a member of Painters Eleven a group of abstract artists active in Toronto from 1954-1960. Town coined the name of the group, which was based simply on the number of artists that were present the first meeting...
and Walter Yarwood, dubbed themselves Painters Eleven and held their first exhibition at the Roberts Gallery in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
in 1954. The ehibition, arranged by Jack Bush, was the first major commercial exhibition of abstract expressionist art in Toronto. Unlike the Group of Seven
Group of Seven (artists)
The Group of Seven, sometimes known as the Algonquin school, were a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920-1933, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael , Lawren Harris , A. Y. Jackson , Franz Johnston , Arthur Lismer , J. E. H. MacDonald , and Frederick Varley...
whose members' work evolved along parallel lines, Painters Eleven shared no common artistic vision apart from a commitment to abstraction. This was reflected in the diversity of the group's members. Decades separated the youngest from the eldest, and before they sold their paintings they made their living as freelance commercial artists or worked in advertising and as art teachers. Two had studied at summer schools conducted by the American abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann
Hans Hofmann
Hans Hofmann was a German-born American abstract expressionist painter.-Biography:Hofmann was born in Weißenburg, Bavaria on March 21, 1880, the son of Theodor and Franziska Hofmann. When he was six he moved with his family to Munich...
and William Ronald "sat in" on his classes, while others were graduates of the Ontario College of Art, and still others were self-taught. Within the group itself, the artistic center of gravity seems to have been Oscar Cahén, a gifted European émigré who became well-known as an illustrator for a number of national magazines. At least three members of the group - Bush, Ronald, and Town - earned international reputations.
In Canada's conservative art world their first exhibition was met with confusion and disdain, typical of new art movements throughout history. By their third exhibition, in 1957, they had established abstract expresionism in Canada. Painters Eleven attained U.S. exposure with a successful exhibition in 1956 with the American Abstract Artists
American Abstract Artists
American Abstract Artists was formed in 1936 in New York City, to promote and foster public understanding of abstract art. American Abstract Artists exhibitions, publications, and lectures helped to establish the organization as a major forum for the exchange and discussion of ideas, and for...
at the Riverside Gallery in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and were praised by the influential critic Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg was an American essayist known mainly as an influential visual art critic closely associated with American Modern art of the mid-20th century...
on a visit he paid to Toronto in 1957. In the Canadian press, the group's most ardent supporters were art critic Robert Fulford and [art writer] Pearl McCarthy of the Globe and Mail. Eventually, the group's numbers were reduced by death and defection (Cahén was killed in a car accident in 1956, Ronald resigned in 1957) and the group formally disbanded in 1960.
Influence
Painters Eleven are credited with the acculturation of English Canada's art-buying public to abstract expressionist painting. Their influence on the next generation of Canadian artists was immense, and their art is now a prominent feature in public galleries and corporate and private collections collections throughout Canada and in many international collections. Some of the group's members - notably Jack Bush, William Ronald and Harold Town - went on to greater success in the 1960s and 1970s. Jack Bush was given a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1976, Harold Town in 1986 and Kazuo Nakamura in 2004. Works by the group's members are beginning to fetch high prices at Canadian fine art auctions. The last surviving member of the group, Tom Hodgson, a former Olympic canoeist and a dedicated abstract expressionist, died in 2006.Selected group exhibitions
- 2010: Museum London, London, Ont.
- 2010: Moore Gallery, Toronto, Ont.
- 2009: (Painters Eleven exhibition with works in amimation) Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto
- 2007: Thielsen Gallery, London, Ont.
- 2003: Thielsen Gallery, London, Ont.
- 1999: Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
- 1994 and 1995: Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ont.
- 1984: Cambridge Art Gallery and Library, Cambridge, Ont.
- 1979: Rodman Hall, St. Catharines, Ont.
- 1978: The Gallery, Stratford, Ont.
- 1976: Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Waterloo, Ont.
- 1975: Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery, Owen Sound, Ont.
- 1971: Robert McLaughlin GalleryThe Robert McLaughlin GalleryThe Robert McLaughlin Gallery, located in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, is the largest public art gallery in the Durham Region of Ontario. The gallery houses a significant collection of Canadian contemporary and modern artwork...
, Oshawa, Ont. - 1960: Stable Gallery, Montreal (Cahen and Ronald absent)
- 1959: National Gallery of Ganada, touring, 7 venues (Ronald absent)
- 1958: Ecole des Beaux Arts, Montreal
- 1957: Park Gallery, Toronto
- 1956: Riverside Museum, New York (with the American Abstract Artists)
- 1955: Roberts Gallery, Toronto
- 1954: Roberts Gallery, Toronto
See also
- Jack BushJack BushJack Bush was a Canadian abstract expressionist painter, born in Toronto, Ontario in 1909 and he died there 24 January 1977...
- William RonaldWilliam RonaldWilliam Ronald, R.C.A. William Ronald, R.C.A. (August 13, 1926 – February 9, 1998) William Ronald, R.C.A. (August 13, 1926 – February 9, 1998) (born William Ronald Smith, was an important Canadian painter, best known as the founder of the influential Canadian abstract art group...
- Les AutomatistesLes AutomatistesLes Automatistes were a group of Québécois artistic dissidents from Montreal, Quebec. The movement was founded in the early 1940s by painter Paul-Émile Borduas. "Les Automatistes" were so called because they were influenced by Surrealism and its theory of automatism...
- Regina FiveRegina FiveRegina Five is the name given to five abstract painters, Kenneth Lochhead, Arthur McKay, Douglas Morton, Ted Godwin, and Ronald Bloore, who displayed their works in the 1961 National Gallery of Canada's exhibition "Five Painters from Regina".-External links:...
- Group of SevenGroup of Seven (artists)The Group of Seven, sometimes known as the Algonquin school, were a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920-1933, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael , Lawren Harris , A. Y. Jackson , Franz Johnston , Arthur Lismer , J. E. H. MacDonald , and Frederick Varley...
- Canadian Group of PaintersCanadian Group of PaintersThe Canadian Group of Painters was a collective of 28 painters from across Canada which came together as group in 1933. They succeeded the disbanded Group of Seven, whose paintings of the Canadian wilderness had been a strong influence on Canadian art....
- Eastern Group of PaintersEastern Group of PaintersThe Eastern Group of Painters was a Canadian artists collective founded in 1938 in Montreal, Quebec. The group included Montreal artists whose common interest was painting and an art for art's sake aesthetic, not the espousal of a nationalist theory as was the case with the Group of Seven or the...
- List of Canadian Artists
- The Robert McLaughlin GalleryThe Robert McLaughlin GalleryThe Robert McLaughlin Gallery, located in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, is the largest public art gallery in the Durham Region of Ontario. The gallery houses a significant collection of Canadian contemporary and modern artwork...
Sources
- Robert Belton, The Theatre of the Self: The Life and Art of William Ronald (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1999).
- Graham Broad, "Painters Eleven: the Shock of the New" in The Beaver, February–March 2003, 20-26.
- Dennis Reid, A Concise History of Canadian Painting (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1973).
- Denise Leclerc, The Crisis of Abstraction in Canada (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1992).
- Iris Nowell, Painters Eleven: The Wild Ones of Canadian Art (Douglas & McIntyre) Sept. 2010
External links
- National Gallery of Canada
- Canadian Art Group (Painters Eleven)
- American Abstract Artists
- Painters Eleven