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The Subterranean by Rita Letendre

Artwork by Rita Letendre, The Subterranean

Rita Letendre
The Subterranean

oil on canvas
signed and dated 1961 lower right; signed, titled and dated on the stretcher
36 x 42 ins ( 91.4 x 106.7 cms )

Auction Estimate: $90,000.00$70,000.00 - $90,000.00

Price Realized $78,000.00
Sale date: December 6th 2023

Provenance:
Moore Gallery, Hamilton
Collection of Michael and Elizabeth Brain, Calgary
Heffel Fine Art, auction, Toronto, 22 November 2017, lot 12
Private Collection, Toronto
Exhibited:
“Rita Letendre: The Montreal Years 1953-1963”, Concordia Art Gallery, Montreal, 19 October - 18 November 1989, no. 26
Literature:
Sandra Paikowsky, “Rita Letendre: The Montreal Years, 1953–1963”, Montreal, 1989, reproduced page 43
“ICYMI: Remembering Rita Letendre” [online publication], The Art Gallery of Ontario, 24 November 2021, https://ago.ca/agoinsider/ icymi–remembering–rita–letendre
Although the Automatistes were instrumental in the evolution of Rita Letendre’s style, the artist developed a singular vision in her body of work that resulted in a unique style that pushed boundaries of colour, light and space. She won first prize in the Concours de la Jeune Peinture in 1959 and the Prix Rodolphe–de–Repentigny in 1960. This prize and the additional sales that followed would allow Letendre to dedicate herself to painting full–time. As well, in 1961, Letendre won second prize in the painting category in the Concours artistiques du Québec. As she became better equipped with painting materials and more time to work, she began creating larger canvases with explosions of colour. Her compositions grew to be more personal and carefully planned, and she began anchoring masses with carefully visualized gestures, amid fields of thick impasto. “The Subterranean”, dating to 1961, was completed during this pivotal period of growth in Letendre’s career. The painting is composed of a horizontal row of blue lozenge– like forms in front of a thick band of olive green pigment. Fields of black impasto border the upper and lower edges of the canvas.

The title of the piece perhaps references the underground, with earth tones and soil–like black pigment. However, Letendre’s paintings at the time were very much still based in Automatism rather than on a particular subject. She stated, “My thoughts, my attitudes are automatist, which means that I have no set formula. My paintings are completely emotional, full of hair–trigger intensity. Through them, I challenge space and time. I paint freedom, escape from the here and now, from the mundane...The world isn’t only what we see or what we experience.”

The 1960s was a decade of well–deserved recognition for Letendre’s work, beginning with a solo exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1961. In 1962, Letendre received a Canada Council Grant, and travelled with Ulysse Comtois to Europe, visiting Paris, Rome and then Israel.

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Rita Letendre
(1928 - 2021) RCA

Current SalesHighlightsWatch Artist

Canadian painter, muralist, and printmaker Rita Letendre was born in Drummondville, Quebec, in 1928. She is of Iroquois descent. Letendre and her parents moved to Montreal in 1941. She settled in Toronto in 1963. In part, Letendre is self-taught but she studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Montreal for year and a half. While in school she was introduced to the Automatistes due to pamphlets announcing the locations of their new paintings.

Encouraged by Borduas, Mosseau, and Ferron’s art, Letendre began exploring similar motifs in her paintings and began exhibiting with the group from 1952-55. In 1955 she exhibited in “Espace 1955” at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Sharing a studio with fellow Automatiste painter and sculptor, Ulysse Comtois, Letendre became the subject of an article by the Weekend Magazine on non-objective Montreal-based painters. Then, in 1959, Letendre was included in the Third Biennial Exhibition of Canadian Art. In the following year the National Gallery of Canada included Letendre in their Non-Figurative Artists of Montreal exhibit that traveled throughout Canada. In 1962, Letendre received a travelling grant from the Canada Council and traveled to Paris, Italy, Israel, Spain, Belgium, and Germany.

Using a variety of techniques and media such as brush, spatula, pastel, silkscreen, and airbrush, Letendre was a leading member of the colourist movement. Exhibited in over sixty-five solo exhibitions, Letendre’s work can be described in three distinct periods. Her first period, known as the Montreal years, was inspired by her first meeting with Borduas and was a rich exploration of self-discovery. Letendre’s second period was inspired by Russian-born sculptor Kosso Eloul, who later became her husband. Her final period was rooted in mourning and love.

Letendre’s works vary in size from grand murals that are sixty feet by sixty feet in size to small projects on silkscreen. These works are collected throughout the North American continent by governments and public and private galleries and organizations. Letendre’s work has been exhibited in Europe, Israel, Japan, and throughout North America in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.

Literature Sources:
"A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume II”, compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1979
Roumanes, Jacques-Bernard. “Rita Letendre: Le tableau ivre.” Vie des Arts 45, 183, 2001
Andersen, Marguerite. “Rita Letendre: Énergie et luminosité. L’art du féminin, 12 2004

We extend our thanks to Danie Klein, York University graduate student in art history, for writing and contributing this artist biography.