Manotik, 1977

Gallery Moos, Toronto Private Collection, Naples

Joan Murray, “Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century”, Toronto, 1999, pages 99 and 122 Wanda Nanibush and Georgiana Uhlyarik, “Rita Letendre: Fire and Light”, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2017, pages 17-19, 52 and 86-87

The utilization of the airbrush technique, combined with sharp wedges, or arrows, that cut across the image plane, have become the most sought-after elements in Rita Letendre’s body of work. Discussing these works produced by the artist during the 1970s, Joan Murray writes, “Rita Letendre explored colour, line and composition through the use of forceful chevrons that cut across the composition diagonally or horizontally from one corner of the painting to the other. She obtained extra energy from applying narrow ridges of contrasting colour to the borders of each ray.” This marriage of hard-edge abstraction and airbrush came about in 1964 after Letendre began employing the use of arrows in her mural works. The artist explains: “At that time, I had started doing a series of black and white wedges, the wedge that became more and more arrows. Then at one moment I made lots of lines near the arrow to create a feeling of vibration, that must vibrate into space, the eternal space...the vibration of a space that moves...these arrows are moving through space. I wanted, by the speed of it, to create vibration around.” In reference to the mural works, Georgiana Uhlyarik argues that “her bold vectors of colour energized both streets and interior spaces with a glorious optimism and confidence that galvanized the city and its residents.” “Manotik” captures the spirit of Letendre’s mural works with the immediately recognizable elements of the arrow and airbrush. The energy radiating from the image is paramount, as the sliver of a black wedge at the lower edge vibrates into increasingly wider bands of earthy browns and contrasting yellows, further enhancing the vigour in this work. The contrast of bordering bands of light and dark pigments combined with movement through the resulting vibration, all speak to the process of discovery for Letendre, both in her work and as an artist.