Espace mauve, 1963

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.