Harold Town
Harold Town (b. June 13, 1924, Toronto - d. December 27, 1990, Peterborough, Ontario) 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.[1] He also worked as an illustrator, appearing in magazines such as Maclean's and Mayfair.
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[edit] Life and work
Harold Town was trained at Central Technical School and Ontario College of Art, both in Toronto. Influenced by the work of Pablo Picasso and Willem de Kooning, and as well, Asian art at the Royal Ontario Museum, he developed a collage technique that was acclaimed[2] and Town represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1956 and 1964 and at the São Paulo Bienal in 1957 and 1961.[2] Known as an "unpredictable" painter[1] Town's work moved quickly from a dark expressionist style to abstraction which contrasted vivid colours.[1] In the 1960s, Town developed a style of prints which he called "Single Autographic Prints" a phrase he never explained.[1] These monotype prints were colourful and delicate[1], winning Town awards in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia and Santiago, Chile, where the prints were acquired by the Solomon Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA0. Alfred Barr the director of MoMA at the time called Town "one of the world's greatest printmakers."[2]
Town had retrospective exhibitions at the Windsor Art Gallery in 1975 and the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1986.
[edit] Painters Eleven
In the late 1940s Town met Walter Yarwood and others involved in avant-garde art in Toronto and although he was not ncluded in the Abstracts at Home exhibition held in 1953 at the Robert Simpson Company, Toronto, he joined Painters Eleven when the group was formed later that year. In Canada's conservative art world their early exhibitions were met with disdain.[3][4] Nevertheless, Painters Eleven attracted U.S. exposure with a successful exhibition, Twentieth Annual Exhibition of American Abstract Artists with "Painters Eleven of Canada in 1956, with the American Abstract Artists at the Riverside Gallery in New York[5], and were praised by the influential critic Clement Greenberg on a visit he paid to Toronto in 1957.[6] In the Canadian press, the group's most ardent supporters were art critic Robert Fulford and Pearl McCarthy, art critic of the Globe and Mail. The group formally disbanded in 1960.[5]
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d e Fulford, "Introduction"
- ^ a b c http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0008072
- ^ Roald Nasgaard, Abstract Painting in Canada, p.92
- ^ Burnett and Schiff Contemporary Canadian Art, p. 46
- ^ a b Roald Nasgaard, Abstract Painting in Canada, p.96
- ^ Roald Nasgaard, Abstract Painting in Canada, p.91
[edit] Further reading
- Broad, Graham. "Art Shock in Toronto: Painters Eleven, The Shock of the New." The Beaver, Canada’s History Magazine Vol. 84:1 (2004).
- Burnett, David G. Town. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1986. ISBN 0771017812
- Fulford, Robert. "Introduction." Magnificent Decade: The Art of Harold Town, 1955-1965. Toronto: The Moore Gallery, 1997.
- Nasgaard, Roald. Abstract Painting in Canada. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2008. ISBN 1553653947
- Withrow, William J. Contemporary Canadian Painting. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1972. ISBN 0771090293
- Nowell, Iris. "Hot Breakfast For Sparrows: My Life With Harold Town," Toronto; Stoddart Publishing, 1992, ISBN 0-7737-2645-4
- Nowell, Iris. "Painters Eleven: The Wild Ones of Canadian Art," Vancouver: Doublas & McIntyre, 2010. ISBN 978-1-55365-590-9
[edit] External links
- Robert Fulford's essay on Harold Town
- CBC Radio interview with Harold Town
- The Canadian Encyclopedia entry on Harold Town
- Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University - Archival photographs of Harold Town from the Toronto Telegram fonds.
