Lot 43
YVES GAUCHER, R.C.A. (1934-2000)
Additional Images
Provenance:
Corporate Collection, Toronto
Literature:
https://aci-iac.ca/art-books/yves-gaucher
Note:
Gaucher first made a name for himself in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a printmaker and an innovative one at that. One of three Gaucher works in this auction, this serigraph is rooted in the artist’s “Dark Paintings,” a suite of work that stretched from the late 1970s to late 1980s. These works are characterized by long horizontals, languorously divided into segments. Compositions are typically bisected by perpendicular edges, though Gaucher introduces subtle diagonals on occasion so as to delicately destabilize the rational geometry. These compositions speak to a restrained energy, simultaneously soothing and invigorating.
While Gaucher’s sensitive use of line pushed the boundaries of Canadian painting, his skills as a colourist are not to be overlooked. Roald Nasgaard, writing for the Art Canada Institute, notes that Gaucher’s choice of colours “were carefully calibrated so that they would interact optically in the eye of the viewer, and their geometric relations let them play a rhythmic dance across the painting’s surface.”