Variation on a Variation, 1957

Mrs. O.D. Vaghan, Toronto Estate of Robert Noakes

"Painters Eleven Exhibition", Park Gallery, Toronto, 31 October-16 November 1957 "Harold Town: A Retrospective", Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 16 May-6 July 1986

David Burnett, "Harold Town: A Retrospective", Toronto, 1986, reproduced page 96, listed page 218 Iris Nowell, "Painter's Eleven: The Wild Ones of Canadian Art", Toronto, 2010, reproduced page 178

During the early stages of his artistic career, Harold Town was keenly attuned to the gestural action paintings of the New York Abstract Expressionists. Along with fellow members of Toronto’s Painters Eleven, Town found this spontaneous, process-based approach to painting an inspiring model of creative liberation. American artist William de Kooning was a significant influence on Town and his close friend and collaborator Oscar Cahén. "Variation on a Variation" is a vigorous action painting executed in a warm palette of yellow, orange and earthy ochres. Densely layered central forms sit below hovering, balloon-like forms, creating an unsettling, ambiguous image. The painting features striped areas, reminiscent of Pablo Picasso’s work, another life-long influence for Town. The linear black strokes at the lower middle have a deft, calligraphic quality, a feature the artist would go on to explore more deeply through his varied output. Shortly after its creation, "Variation on a Variation" was exhibited at the ground- breaking Painters Eleven Exhibition at Toronto's Park Gallery in 1957. Town’s career was in ascendancy in the late 1950s. Terrifically prolific and inventive, Town would earn international recognition while remaining firmly rooted in Toronto.