catalogue essays
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Sylvain Louis-Seize, Resolution, (Oeno Gallery, 2020).
Exhibition catalogue essay excerpt. Sylvain Louis-Seize has painted since he could hold a brush -- growing up in a rough north Montreal neighbourhood he painted on purloined construction scraps using leftover house paint from neighbours. When success came ultimately and suddenly in 2005, he left his construction job of 18 years and rode a wave that allowed him to paint full time. Exhibitions of his rich landscapes derived from an active imagination sold out to eager collectors. Then just as suddenly, in 2017, Louis-Seize put down his brush -- painting having been as much a therapy for him as a livelihood, he sought a new direction in his artwork. Now in 2019, after a 2 year hiatus, Louis-Seize has returned to painting in a bold reinvention. Through the medium he has explored his entire life, the artist has resolved memories of a difficult past and seized the present. Things could have turned out quite differently for him – raised by a single mother in difficult circumstances, he saw many of his friends end up in street gangs. |
"Traces Through Space" 1970 (destroyed)
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Paterson Ewen, Works on Paper, 1949-1992 (Art Gallery of Hamilton, 1992)
Exhibition catalogue essay excerpt. While Ewen had begun to paint with fresh energy in this new and liberating environment, he had little money to live on or to purchase art supplies. He began to question the care he was receiving from his Toronto dealer, the Dunkelman Gallery. In a rash letter to Ben Dunkelman dated May 6, 1969, Ewen asked that the gallery terminate his contract and return all of his artwork.[1] In response, Dunkelman withheld Ewen’s art and demanded he reimburse the gallery $1,313.63 for “shipping, framing, advertising and other advances.”[2] In this acute situation, Ewen was forced to sell artworks from his collection. The artist was angry and frustrated. During a panel discussion at the opening of a retrospective exhibition of his work at the 20/20 Gallery in January, 1970, he lashed out: Because of the persons who have bought my paintings, I have determined never to paint another canvas… I don’t know what I’ll do. But I’m determined it won’t be this sort of thing.[3] Ewen declared that: “As objects my paintings fit into a category which I reject.”[4] To the artist, it seemed “that no matter how hard you try to free yourself you will become elitist anyway.” He had reached an impasse in his art and was deeply dissatisfied with the rules of non-figurative painting. In that moment, Ewen decided to give up “brushes and everything else”: I really felt like playing instead and I thought I was making an anti-art gesture in the formal sense with those last paintings. Daubing rows of dots on plain canvas with felt. But then somehow this turned out feeling like traces of things moving through space and this is what first suggested the idea of phenomena…[5] These now renowned breakthrough paintings including Traces Through Space (1970, destroyed) also include a group of works on paper Ewen titled, Rain Hit By Wind (1970) (cat. no. 17, illus.). In these works, the artist dashed a brush loaded with Japanese ink across sheets of paper. Unlike his figurative works of the 1950’s, these paintings cannot be called modernist… [1] Dunkelman Gallery Archives, MG 28 III 110 Vol. 2, Public Archives of Canada. [2] Dunkelman Gallery Archives. Ewen took a teaching position at H.B. Beal Secondary School in the fall, 1969, and was able to pay back some of his debt. The Dunkelman Gallery kept only one painting. [3] Ewen in Lenore Crawford, “Ewen Art Works Lauded,” London Free Press (Jan. 7, 1970). [4] Ewen in “Robert Millet, Paterson Ewen, Barry Lord, Royden Rabinowitch, Greg Curnoe, etc., Jan. 6, 1970, 20/20 Gallery, King St., London, Ont.”, tape recording. [5] Ewen in Nick Johnson, “Paterson Ewen, Rain,” Artscanada, No. 196/197 (March, 1975) p. 41. |
