Artwork by Harold Barling Town,  Take Off

Harold Town
Take Off

single autographic print
signed, dated 1956 and numbered 1-1
19.75 x 15.85 ins ( 50.2 x 40.3 cms )

Auction Estimate: $3,000.00$2,000.00 - $3,000.00

Price Realized $3,680.00
Sale date: May 25th 2017

Provenance:
Private Collection, Toronto
Literature:
Gerta Moray, Harold Town: Life and Work (online publication), Art Canada Institute, Toronto, 2014, pages 7, 22 and 58
Between 1953 and 1959, Harold Town developed a revolutionary technique and theory of print-making in a modern age. Rather than create multiple editions of the same image, each print was designed and produced specifically as a singularly unique work. This monotype technique was affectionately dubbed by the artist, “single autographic” print making, which was influenced by Town's desire to create unique artworks as an extension of himself. These works were first showcased with Douglas Duncan and quickly purchased by the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Toronto. The National Gallery of Canada also selected Town's autographic prints to represent Canada at the 1956 Venice Biennale alongside works by Jack Shadbolt and Louis Archambault.

The process of creating these works was crucial to Town's theory of print making and his commitment to producing singularly unique artworks. A lithographic stone was inked and printed with subsequent stencils and inked paper cut-outs to create layers of abstract patterns. Masking off areas of negative space with more stencils and cut outs, additional layers of the image were printed, developing richer image layers. Between each pull, Town waited for inks to dry completely, often waiting full days for a layer to dry. This time allowed the artist to subsequently develop several autographic prints in parallel. This process of layered complex shapes also allowed for accidentally suggestive or referential forms and imagery to emerge. Further developing his technique, Town would also incorporate found objects like string, wire and fabrics to impress into the surface of the artwork. No doubt, the influence of collage and assemblage developed through Cubism, Dada and Surrealism also had a role to play in the imagery of these works.

On Town's procedure and technique, Gerta Moray writes that “this method of generating images challenged Town to think beyond his facility with the paintbrush.” Vibrant with colour and complex with multiple facets of imagery, “Take Off” is an example of this important period in Town's career and a token of the development of abstract art in Canada.




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Harold Barling Town
(1924 - 1990) Painters Eleven, OSA, RCA

A lifelong Torontonian, Harold Town was one of Canada’s foremost abstract expressionists. After graduating from the Ontario College of Arts (now, OCAD University), he worked as a commercial illustrator for many years. In 1954, he became a founding member of the experimental painter’s group, Painters Eleven, a name he coined, himself, along with Jack Bush and Jock MacDonald.

Town’s work went beyond paint, though: he experimented with all kinds of different methods and materials. He often employed a lithography machine to ink his paper in different ways (his single autographic prints). A propane blow torch was occasionally used to burn his paper or canvas. And he particularly loved collage, stating, “it’s marvelous to think of the garbage of our age becoming the art of our time.” According to Gerta Moray, these collages are closely connected to his abstract expressionist painting: “the compositional modes of his collages share the aesthetic of his paintings: they spread out to fill the surface yet are given focus as configurations by areas of drawing in ink or paint.”

Two of Town’s single autographic prints were the first works by the artist to be acquired by the National Gallery of Canada. The NGC then selected him to represent Canada at the 1956 Venice Biennale, along with Jack Shadbolt and Louis Archambault.

By the end of the 1960s, Town had exhibited his work internationally and represented Canada at the Venice Biennale twice. He garnered covers of Maclean’s and Time magazines and became a hero of Canadian art. At one point his name was “synonymous with art in Toronto.” He received an honourary doctorate from York University and the Order of Canada.

In the 1970s, Town faced criticism for remaining in Toronto instead of going to New York to pursue Pop Art and minimalism. Town asserted that these claims by art critics suggested a subservience to the New York trends. He remained true to his roots in Toronto.

In the 1980s, Town returned to figurative painting. His bright colours and simple lines were playful, ironic, and influenced by folk art. In his series, Musclemen, he painted body builders in cartoonish proportions and colours, with giant muscles and tiny heads. Apparently, Town “came upon an international bodybuilding competition and was captivated by the human body performing its muscle-bulging poses as living sculpture.” Moray asserts that this series ironically comments on “the masculine ideal in popular culture.” This assertion is made more interesting when considering that he also painted a small number “Muscles Ladies.”

Four years before his death, Town was given a long overdue retrospective exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Town’s death in 1990 of cancer was felt profoundly by the artistic community. Pierre Burton wrote “Town was a great artist with an insatiable intellect.” David Burnett, the curator of his retrospective wrote: “Our response to his death must be to begin the process of understanding his achievement as a totality, of facing all of his work in the present” The enticing legacy of his work continues to captivate and intrigue audiences today.

Literature Sources
Iris Nowell, “Harold Town”, Vancouver, 2014, pages 175-78
Gerta Moray, “Harold Town: Life and Works”, Art Canada Institute, 2014 (www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/harold-town)

We extend our thanks to Scarlett Larry, York University graduate student in art history, for writing and contributing this artist biography.