Abstraction in Black and White

Price upon request

This exceptional painting is exhibited for the first time since its acquisition in the sixties.

Read the complete article on Abstraction en noir et blanc by Rita Letendre

From 1960 to 1963, Rita Letendre spent time in Europe before settling in California. During her trip, she noticed the dynamism and impact of the works in black and white by the Austrian painter Franz Kline (1910-1962). At the beginning of the 1960s, her works was characterized by a lyrical and textured abstraction, with opaque and deep colors, particularly prolific on the artistic level, this period precedes the adoption in 1964 of a predominant theme throughout her work:

The Black and White Abstraction (1964) is a testimony to this phase of maturity in the artist, where she discovers a motif that, in perpetual evolution, punctuates her work until the dawn of the 1980's. 'balance, the arrow furrows the matter, and from it springs a flash of lightning and bright, its diagonals possibly refer to a storm that marked her youth. Letendre pointed out this event at the Whyte Murray review of The Star: "I was very afraid, of the thunder, the lightning, and my grandmother spoke to me instead of its beauty and the strength of the storm" 1.

On a chromatic level, Letendre gives a particular importance to black in her compositions. Symbol of strength and intensity, black, according to the artist, consolidates and unifies the elements of the painting. She continues: "[...] black is not a danger; color and light fight and win. You do not accept the darkness, you go through it and you win. "2. The canvas is now transformed into a space of exchange; the colors overlap and confront each other, often in a very lively meeting. Movements, tensions and fusions combine in Black and White Abstraction to offer viewers a total experience of color. "

1. Rita Letendre: Against the dying of the light », The Star, Art visuel, 8 juillet 2017, Toronto, [en ligne], URL : https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/visualarts/2017/07/08/rita-letendre-against-the-
dying-of-the-light.html, consulté le 25 juillet 2018.

2. Ibid., URL: https:// www.thestar.com/entertainment/visualarts/2017/07/08/rita-letendre-against-the-dying-of-the-light.html, consulté le 25 juillet 2018.


 

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Rita Letendre (1928 - 2021)

Abstraction in Black and White, 1964

  • Gallery

    Cosner Art Gallery - Montreal

  • Medium

    Oil on canvas

  • Time

    Post-War Canadian art

  • Dimensions

    101,6 cm x 80,5 cm / 40'' x 31, 75''

  • Signed

    Signed and dated 64 lower right

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