signed and dated 1961 lower right; signed, titled and dated on the reverse
16 × 14 in (40.6 × 35.6 cm)
Auction Estimate:$5,000 - $7,000
Sale date:November 19, 2019
Price Realized
$5,428
(including Buyer's Premium)
Provenance
Isaacs Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto
After briefly attending the École des beaux-arts de Montréal in the late 1940s, Ulysse Comtois abandoned his studies to mingle directly with the thriving Québec artistic milieu, drawn to the strong cultural statement of the Automatistes and their 1948 manifesto Le Refus Global. During the following decade, the artist was torn between the loose paint handling of the Automatistes and the emerging geometrical style of the new Plasticiens movement of Montreal. “DoBo” demonstrates this influence of the two opposing contemporaneous abstract approaches in Quebec, with thickly-applied layers of paint in varying textures that are neatly organized into horizontal bands. The painting serves as a rare example of Comtois’ oils during the early 1960s, as he was suddenly inspired to take up Dadaist- inspired metal sculpture in 1960-1961 for the remainder of the decade.
