Collection of Don Jean-Louis, British Columbia (A gift by artist exchange with Graham Coughtry)
Although best known for his abstractions of the human figure, Graham Coughtry was active in graphic design work in the 1950s; professionally, working in the television graphics department at the CBC until 1959 but also designing numerous posters for theatrical plays and music events. These are characterized by his distinctive hand-drawn and painted script text, such as the cover of Kenneth McRobbie’s Eyes Without a Face (published by The Isaacs Gallery, Gallery Editions in 1960). He also designed the poster for a Duke Ellington concert at Massey Hall, December 1959. Although this aspect of Coughtry’s work is rarely examined, several examples were included in the exhibition Small Villages, The Isaacs Gallery in Toronto 1956-1991, at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, 1992.
While the untitled drawing has compositional affinities to Coughtry’s design work, it appears to be an independent studio work: the text is a prose-poem rumination on “the mouth.” It is not known if this was exhibited at the time but Coughtry was included in a “graphics” group exhibition at The Isaacs Gallery July 4-24, 1961. Don Jean-Louis’s first solo exhibition of drawings at The Isaacs Gallery was September 29-October 19, 1961, and was represented by Isaacs until 1969.
Jean-Louis and Coughtry were both included in the exhibition The Contemporary Art of the Americas and Spain, which opened in Madrid, May 1963, and travelled to public galleries in Venice, Paris, Rome and Stockholm.
We extend our thanks to Dr. Ihor Holubizky for researching this artwork and for contributing the above essay.
