Artwork by Jean-Paul Mousseau,  Espace mauve

Jean-Paul Mousseau
Espace mauve

oil on canvas
signed and dated 1963 lower right; signed, titled and dated on the reverse
40 x 30 ins ( 101.6 x 76.2 cms )

Auction Estimate: $15,000.00$12,000.00 - $15,000.00

Price Realized $15,600.00
Sale date: June 15th 2022

Provenance:
Sotheby’s, auction, Toronto, December 3, 1997, Lot 50
Private Collection, Ontario
Montreal artist Jean-Paul Mousseau was heavily involved in the avant- garde abstract art movements of the post-war era. “Espace mauve” was completed in 1963, during a highly experimental period at the height of Mousseau’s career. That year, Mousseau participated in a group show “Festival of the Two Worlds” in Spolette, Italy, and a sculpture exhibition at Galerie Agnès Lefort in Montreal.

“Espace mauve” is a composition of diagonal bands of colours - a recurring format for his works of the 1960s. The orange triangle in the lower right corner is the only solid colour; the others are thinly layered on a black ground. The painting presents a balance, and perhaps a transitional moment for the artist, between gestural abstraction and the growing hard-edge movements in Quebec.

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Jean-Paul Mousseau
(1927 - 1991) Les Automatistes