Lot 51
ARTHUR LISMER, O.S.A., R.C.A.
Additional Images
Provenance:
Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal
Private Collection, British Columbia
Literature:
Dennis Reid, Canadian Jungle: The Later Work of Arthur Lismer, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1985, page 55.
Note:
During the second half of the fifties, Lismer produced numerous studies of skunk cabbages and the tidal pools of the west coast. However, as Dennis Reid, points out: "Lismer's principal subject had become the single tree, isolated in the dense forest. Sometimes almost lost in the lush blue green, and pink undergrowth that engulfs it... or at other times standing relatively clear, like some mysterious totem..." While images such as this lot seem familiar enough and are mistakenly dismissed as "late" works, they are not only complex compositions but enormously important to understanding Lismer's practice. Reid postulates: "Some might consider it (the tree) a visual metaphor for art, or the artist.”