Les fiançailles no. 5, 1976

Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto The Collection of TransCanada PipeLines Limited, Calgary

Jean McEwen: Colour in Depth, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, December 1987 - January 1988

Constance Naubert-Riser, Jean McEwen: Colour in Depth, paintings and works on paper, 1951-1987, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1987, pages 37-39 and 46-49, reproduced page 111

The monumental painting “Les Fiançailles No. 5” constitutes an example of Jean McEwen’s mature work that reference a previous theme of monochromatic white canvases in 1955-56. Art historian Constance Naubert-Riser remarks that “the development of [McEwen’s] painting does not follow a linear model, but rather a circular one.” What distinguishes this series from past ones is the particular opalescent quality of the white. The examination of the opalescence of white is the object of the “Les Fiançailles” series as well as two other series - “Temple heureux” and “Epithalames”. These three series, which translate to “The Betrothal”, “Temple of Bliss” and “Epithalamiums”, make reference in their titles and white palette to McEwen’s second marriage in 1976. During these later years, the artist’s titles often linked to particular events that occurred at the time the works were executed. In this case, Naubert-Riser writes that “the verbal image is no longer based on pictorial elements common to the series, but evokes - discreetly and poetically - an event of recollection.” Jean McEwen wanted his abstract paintings to be a sensory experience for the viewer. McEwen was so preoccupied by the realm of pure sensation that “he felt no need to burden his paintings with transcendental meaning.” His canvases are layered with translucent and opaque colour, achieving textural effects resulting from the varying thicknesses of the pictorial surface. Important works such as “Les Fiançailles No. 5” contain “effects of depth that push the possibilities offered by the medium to their very limits.” Dappled with grey and white oil paint in varying opacities, the alluring canvas of “Les Fiançailles No. 5” evokes McEwen’s signature effects of dramatic depth. The painting is structured with more opaque bands of white along the left and right edges, and a soft band of yellow along the lower edge. These areas frame the composition and create an optical entryway into the seemingly infinite depths of the artwork. “Les Fiançailles No. 5” was featured in a major retrospective of McEwen’s work, Jean McEwen: Colour in Depth, held at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts from December 1987 to January 1988, curated by Constance Naubert-Riser, professor of Art History at the University of Montreal.