CANADIAN POST~WAR & CONTEMPORARY ART - Heffel

HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 33
22 TONI (NORMAN) ONLEY
BCSFA CPE CSPWC RCA 1928 ~ 2004
Collage #3
collage on board, signed and dated 1958
35 1/4 x 44 3/4 in, 89.5 x 113.7 cm
PROVENANCE:
Private Collection, Vancouver Island
After the death of his wife in 1957, Toni Onley and his two young
daughters set out for San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where in the
ambient surroundings he found solace and fresh inspiration. In Mexico,
his work became more free and expressionistic ~ he began tearing up
paintings and reforming them into new compositions. Upon his return
to Canada in November 1958, Onley was almost immediately recognized
with a solo show at the Vancouver Art Gallery. This show quickly
validated this collage series as some of his most innovative and
important work.
ESTIMATE: $7,000 ~ 9,000
22
23 LOUIS BELZILE
AANFM ARCA 1929 ~
Sérénité
gouache and crayon on artist board, signed and dated 1956
and on verso titled on the artist’s label
30 x 20 in, 76.2 x 50.8 cm
PROVENANCE:
Private Collection, Montreal
Private Collection, Toronto
LITERATURE:
David Burnett & Marilyn Schiff, Contemporary Canadian Art,
1983, page 36
The Plasticiens, an important artistic movement in Quebec, derived
certain principles from the Automatist movement, yet were distinctly
different in theory and painting practice. The unique quality of the
Plasticiens was largely due to their main artistic alignment with Piet
Mondrian and the Constructivist movement that focused on a return to
order, rejecting certain Surrealist tendencies. Burnett writes, “In Paris,
Belzile, who was there in 1952 ~ 53, could have seen not only the work of
the original Constructivists but that of many others who had been drawn
to Paris.” This serene, harmonious work is of particularly fine quality, and
expresses the primary idea of linear structure which the Plasticiens
espoused.
ESTIMATE: $5,000 ~ 7,000
23