Artwork by William Perehudoff,  AC-83-94

William Perehudoff
AC-83-94

acrylic on canvas
signed, titled and dated 1983 on the reverse
68 x 16.5 ins ( 172.7 x 41.9 cms )

Auction Estimate: $12,000.00$9,000.00 - $12,000.00

Price Realized $24,000.00
Sale date: November 22nd 2021

Provenance:
Private Collection, Ontario
Literature:
Roald Nasgaard, “Abstract Painting in Canada”, Vancouver/Toronto, 2007, page 291
William Perehudoff had a close connection to the Emma Lake Artists’ Workshops and owned a cabin near Emma Lake with his wife, Dorothy Knowles. Perehudoff attended the workshops of Will Barnett and Herman Cherry, as well as those of Clement Greenberg, Donald Judd and Kenneth Noland. It would be Noland’s workshop in 1963 that would have the greatest impact and influence. At Noland’s suggestion Perehudoff became acquainted with Jack Bush in the mid-1960’s, regularly visiting the artist. Like Bush, Perehudoff worked as a commercial artist. In “AC-83-94”, we see Bush’s artistic influence on Perehudoff.

The vertical orientation of “AC-83-94” creates movement in the large areas of colour as it appears they are floating down against the ground. In discussing the later works of the artist, Roald Nasgaard cites Nancy Tousley: “Perehudoff may not have shared the formalists’ constant worry about figure-ground compositions - which resurfaced dramatically in the paintings of the 1980’s and 1990’s - for the simple reason he had more complex roots and orientations than they usually allowed,” concluding, “Since those early Emma Lake workshops, Perehudoff continued to see painting as a space in which a dialogue among forms gives rise to feelings.”

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William Perehudoff
(1919 - 2013) RCA

William Perehudoff was born in Langham, Saskatchewan and maintained a connection to this area throughout his life. In 1944, the Saskatoon Art Centre opened, and this provided Perehudoff with early and important access to art. Within a couple of years he was exhibiting regularly in group exhibitions such as the Saskatoon Exhibition and the Art Centre fall show. Throughout this phase of his development as an artist, he farmed in the summer and devoted himself to painting and his art education in the winter. Like many artists of the time, Perehudoff had been influenced by the motivations and methodologies of social realist artists such as Diego Rivera.  Perehudoff took instruction from the influential French muralist Jean Charlot, as well as Amédé Ozenfant in New York, the French Purist and associate of Le Corbusier.  Kenneth Noland, a very important colour field painter, was also a major influence to his work. Since the 1960s, Perehudoff was a central figure in Canadian abstraction. The effect of the flat plains and open skies that are so dramatically present throughout Saskatchewan seem to be detectable in his work. William Perehudoff received the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 1994 and an honorary doctorate from the University of Regina in 2003. He was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 1998.