Abstract #34 (Empire), 1957

Patrimoine Marcil Private Collection, Toronto

A painter, draftsman and fashion illustrator from Montreal, René Marcil spent most of his professional life in New York, Paris and London. In 1947, Marcil played a pivotal role in the successful launch of Christian Dior’s New Look collection in the United States. Marcil moved to Paris in 1952 to attend the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. He rented a studio on the Left Bank and quickly became a Montparno, a name for the artists and intellectuals who frequented the Montparnasse cafés and restaurants. He socialized with painters such as Sonia Delaunay, who influenced the evolution of his style to colourful abstraction, akin to the popular Neoplasticism movement. The Galerie l’Art Français in Montreal described his work from this period as “intense, luminous and has the quality of combining graphic design, great draftsmanship, extraordinary color, fascinating surfaces... [and] poetic feeling.” “Abstract #34 (Empire)” was completed in 1957, while Marcil was still living in Paris (he left the French capital in 1965 to move to London). The composition is a crisp, pleasing abstract image of black and white and primary colours. It simultaneously carries a sense of order and spontaneity, due to a balance between line, form, colour and space. René Marcil’s work is represented in permanent collections internationally, including the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre, Paris, the Collections Nationales de France, Ministère de la Culture de France, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.