Death of a Platitude, 1965

Jerrold Morris International Gallery Ltd., Toronto Private Collection, Ontario

David Burnett, “Town”, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1986, page 122 and 132; a similar work, “Centrebiz” (1965) reproduced on page 129

Painted in 1965, “Death of a Platitude” is an exceptional example of Harold Town’s work of the mid-sixties. The painting was purchased directly from Town’s important exhibition at Jerrold Morris International Art Gallery in 1966, marking the return of the artist after an exhibition hiatus in Canada. After a successful 1962 show with Jerrold Morris, press and the Canadian artworld alike lauded an exhibition by Town as akin to the Stanley Cup playoffs. This sentiment carried through to this seminal 1966 exhibition. Coincidentally, the Mazelow Gallery also scheduled an opening of Town’s work on the same night in January 1966. Town was whisked between the openings, which created even more buzz in the art community and heightened the appetite for his unique works. “Death of a Platitude” is bold, complex, brilliant in colour and bursting with frenzied energy. The work from this period exemplifies what David Burnett describes as “some of the most striking paintings Town has ever done.” Town layered a variety of visual patterns in the work from hand-painted ‘doughnuts’ which creates a tapestry-like backdrop. Grid patterning in wide yellow bands and curved ribbons of colour executed using masking tape reflects a strong positive and negative contrast. The work is incredibly dense and rich in its compositional elements within the pictorial space and plays with optical depth simultaneously. Burnett discusses these works from the 1966 exhibitions: “Their premise of subject matter, painterly structure, and forcefulness were extensions of the basis of his painting...The sheer dazzle of pictures...was a gesture of challenge, the challenge to push painting against the grain of what should work, the challenge to timidity.” A similar work from 1965, entitled “Centrebiz”, is part of the Museum London’s permanent collection and was featured in Town’s retrospective exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1986.