HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 9076
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 9176 MARY FRANCES PRATTOC RCA 1935 ~Summer Firewatercolour, pastel and oil on paper, signed and dated 1989and on verso titled on the Mira Godard Gallery label46 1/4 x 34 3/4 in, 117.5 x 88.3 cmPROVENANCE:Mira Godard Gallery, TorontoPrivate Collection, TorontoLITERATURE:Tom Smart, The Art of Mary Pratt, The Substance of Light,The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, 1995, page 123In the late 1980s, Mary Pratt began a series based on images of fire,contained in barrels or in open bonfires. Through these works, as Smartwrites, “Pratt explored the theme of the end of things, destroyed, offeredup or incinerated.” Although this concept had an apocalytic side, Prattalso found fire to be liberating and alive. In this series of largemulti~media works on paper, she used chalk, pastel and watercolour aswell as oil to capture the ephemeral, dynamic quality of fire, with itselemental power to transform. Known for her ability with the effects oflight on surfaces, here she captures light at the point of its creation in thefire’s consumption of matter.ESTIMATE: $12,000 ~ 16,00077 JACK LEONARD SHADBOLTBCSFA CGP CSPWC OC RCA 1909 ~ 1998Emergent Imageacrylic on board tryptych, signedand dated 1976, 1977 and 1991and on verso titled60 x 120 in, 152.4 x 304.8 cmLITERATURE:Scott Watson, Jack Shadbolt, 1990, pages 150 and 153The theme of transformation is one that continuously appears throughoutShadbolt’s career. This triptych portrays a beautiful butterfly emergingout of the two side panels to start its life cycle. Scott Watson suggests thatShadbolt’s butterfly triptychs are often visual descriptions of sexualityand states, “The looser works, which evoked a metaphor of seedscattering in the wind, were about an orgasmic release of tension. Theensuing relaxation was reflected in the amorphous, flaccid shapes thatfloated across the pictorial field.” Similar to butterflies, Shadbolt’spaintings can also be seen as acts of transformation. Throughout hisartistic career, Shadbolt repeatedly mined past works for his new works.Scott comments that by reworking a past painting, “whose texture andimage would never be completely suppressed by a new layer, he had abuilt~in device for the suggestion of something hidden and repressed,which nonetheless made itself felt through fissures, cracks and bumps.”It is evident that the three panels for Emergent Image have been reworked;bright colours from previous layers on the panels are apparent throughlayered coats of paint, transforming it into a stunning work.ESTIMATE: $40,000 ~ 60,00077