Celebration, 1954

The Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto Joyner Fine Art, auction, Toronto, 23 May 2000, lot 106 Private Collection, Toronto

In 1954, the year in which this work was painted, Painters Eleven was making its initial critical impact on the Canadian art scene and Harold Town held the first solo art exhibition of his career at the Picture Loan Society. Town was fiercely independent in his artistic output at this time, his range of work vacillating between paintings, drawings, and prints. Across these mediums the subject and style had a distinctive range, with a crossover in theme and technique. “Celebration”, aptly titled for such a momentous year in Town’s career, is an action painting with aggressive all-over brushwork, executed while Town was working in the defined field of Abstract Expressionism. As with all artworks created by the artist, this composition is an independent statement. Rich colour and a thick application of the medium are indicative of Town's classic approach to abstract painting at this time. The intermingling of black lines with broad, colourful brushstrokes and soft rounded shapes create a play between the representational and the abstract. This is a lively painting of vigorous gestures in swaths of rich reds, oranges, yellows, blues and greens, vibrating with movement and dynamism. Town confounded and impressed critics throughout his artistic career, remaining forever diverse to stretch his creativity beyond artistic norms.