Annunciation, 1951

Estate of the Artist 

Jack Bush Heritage Corporation 

Private Collection, Ontario

“Jack Bush”, Roberts Gallery, Toronto, 1952, no. 9 

“Jack Bush: Hymn to the Sun, Early Work”, Art Gallery of Algoma, Sault St. Marie, Ontario; travelling to Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax; The Art Gallery of Newfoundland, St. John’s; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; Winnipeg Art Gallery; Hart House, University of Toronto; Laurentian University, Museum and Art Gallery, Sudbury; MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie and the Institute for Modern and Contemporary Art, Calgary, 1 May 1977–1979

“Jack Bush, First Record Book of Paintings” (1930–1963), Jack Bush Fonds, E.P. Taylor Research Library & Archives, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto 

Pearl McCarthy, ‘The Lesson from Jack Bush Exhibit’, “The Globe and Mail”, 16 February 1952, page 8 

Christine Boyanoski, “Jack Bush: Early Work”, Toronto, 1985, page 21 

Michael Burtch, “Jack Bush: Hymn to the Sun, Early Work,” Sault Ste. Marie, 1997, reproduced page 87

Jack Bush Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonné, Volume 1, 1920-1954", Toronto, 2024, reproduced pages 402-403, no. 1.184.1951.134

Some of the most vibrant, and largest, figurative paintings by Jack Bush emerged in 1951. Annunciation is a shining example of this bold and exuberant period in the artist’s career. I would argue that Bush was cognizant of the fact that the paintings he made in 1951 represented the apotheosis of the first half of his life as a painter, a time when his representational-style painting had reached its climax, marked with brave colour and archetypal subject matter which is exemplified in this painting and others, such as “The Angel, Angry Man”, and “The Lovers”. Around the same time that he painted “Annunciation”, in the spring of 1951, Bush painted “The Good Samaritan”, which won him the J.W.L. Forster Award for Best Picture in the 80th Annual Exhibition of the Ontario Society of Artists (OSA) in 1952. “Annunciation”, on the other hand, was reserved for his big solo exhibition at Roberts Gallery, which opened one month before the OSA show, in Toronto, and the painting won him critical acclaim. Writing for “The Globe and Mail”, art critic Pearl McCarthy praised the painting with a direct and confident statement that concluded her review: His “Annunciation” is remarkably gratifying, modern but with pertinent refinement. 

His exhibition at Roberts Gallery, simply titled “Jack Bush”, featured twenty-five paintings made between 1949 and 1951. Except for the two paintings that presented a checkerboard pattern, all the works in show were only partially abstract. Keeping a finger on reality as he did, prompted McCarthy to note that “Mr. Bush paints honestly and that he seems to know the simple truth which alludes many, that one must have a rich idea from which to do one’s abstracting.” In this case, the truth he painted was one of the most pivotal stories of all in the Christian tradition: when the Angel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, she has conceived the Son of God, Jesus. It is a magical moment that celebrates creation, and thus a subject deserving of full-blown creativity. In Bush’s rendition of this core subject, he used colour and a backdrop that expresses a beautiful sense of abandon from the norm while remaining entirely recognizable, and therefore universal in its appeal. 

As I stated from the outset, it’s as if the artist consciously went all out with his heart and soul into the big figurative paintings which he made in 1951. Come 1952, there is a discernible shift toward full abstraction in his oeuvre. Gone are the major religious paintings and theatrical presentation of men and women in costume. Nineteen-fifty-one appears, in hindsight, to be his last hurrah in a manner of painting that he had mastered since the late 1920s. As an introduction to the year 1952 in his record book of paintings, Bush wrote: “Preparations for one man exhibition at Roberts [Gallery]...very successful. No painting at all following show. [...] Good period of digesting. No hurry to get to work . Desire for quiet period of work for five years.” He did as he intended, he slowed down his production but not for as long as he would have liked. In 1953, just one year later, he joined forces with other Toronto abstract painters who embraced a new way of painting and formed Painters Eleven. With these new like-minded peers showing their avant-garde art together, it seemed that anything was possible, and a new truth emerged for Jack Bush, in pure colour and form alone. 

We extend our thanks to Dr. Sarah Stanners for contributing the preceding essay. Sarah is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Art History while writing the forthcoming “Jack Bush Catalogue Raisonné”. From 2015 to 2018 she was the Chief Curator of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Co-Curator of the 2014/2015 national travelling exhibition, “Jack Bush”, Co-Author of the resulting 2014 exhibition catalogue “Jack Bush” and guest curator and author for “Jack Bush: In Studio”, organized by the Esker Foundation in Calgary.