Gris et Bleu, 1972

Marlborough-Godard, Toronto/Montreal. The Collection of Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc.

David Burnett and Marilyn Schiff, “Contemporary Canadian Art”, Toronto/Edmonton, 1983, reproduced in colour, page 78, figure 68. Roald Nasgaard, “Yves Gaucher, A Fifteen-Year Perspective, 1963-1978”, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1979, page 103. Roald Nasgaard, “The Plasticiens and Beyond, Montreal, 1955-1970”, Varley Art Gallery, Markham, 2013, page 89.

Gaucher's series of Grey on Grey paintings of the late 1960s would resonate in his works of the early 1970s. The artist's fascination with, and mastery of, the colour grey would endure in this 1972 masterwork “Gris et Bleu”. The light grey has been replaced by a more “self-assertive” darker grey and blue with more hardened-edges present. By 1972, Gaucher had decreased the number of white horizontal lines in his compositions from several to one. In “Gris et Bleu”, the experience of the work comes slowly, through taking in the “slow rhythmic roll up and down the surface of the painting.” The expansive surface of the painting is without the gesture of the brushstroke, activating a meditative colour-based engagement with the viewer. In a 1974 interview, Gaucher described the function of a painting: “It's not what you see...it's not what you analyze...but the state of trance that you can be put into by the work...”