signed and dated 1961 upper left; signed, titled (twice) and dated on the reverse
10 × 14 in (25.4 × 35.6 cm)
Auction Estimate:$6,000 - $8,000
Sale date:November 23, 2017
Price Realized
$8,050
(including Buyer's Premium)
Provenance
Moore Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, New Brunswick
Literature
Harold Town: Four Decades, Drabinsky Gallery exhibition catalogue, Toronto, September 15 – October 10, 1990, page 2
The year 1961 was a particularly successful time in Harold Town's career. By the late 1950s, Toronto's growing concentration of wealth propelled a local art boom, giving strong attention to the vibrant modern works of the Painters Eleven. In 1961 Town had a significant exhibition at the Laing Galleries, and was on the cover of “Maclean's”. The artist also became a member of Toronto's cultural elite when he was invited to join the exclusive Sordsmen's Club. His colourful, abstract oils of this time, such as “The Game” (1961), reflect his interest in the work of the Abstract Expressionists, and in increasingly formal investigations of non-representational art. Town had spoken about the horror of repeating himself, and of “his work becoming the relentless refinement of a single idea.” The following year he abruptly turned away from Abstract Expressionism to a more conceptual-based approach.
