Lot 20
JACK LEONARD SHADBOLT, R.C.A.
Additional Images
Provenance:
Private Collection, Collingwood
Literature:
Scott Watson, Jack Shadbolt, Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver / Toronto, 1990, page 86.
Patricia Ainslie, Jack Shadbolt: Correspondences, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, 1991, page 19.
Note:
In 1960, the Shadbolts returned to Europe (they had also visited in 1956). Scott Watson credits "colour hunger" for drawing Shadbolt back to the Côte d'Azur where the artist could freely explore "hedonistic expressiveness."
Jack Shadbolt (1909-1998) began his Winter Garden Series in Collioure in 1961 and while this series of works was executed in ink on paper, and cubist, its primary subject matter was furniture and floral arrangements. The series utilized automatic as well as more conventional techniques. Shabdolt had experimented with still life early in his career, and was exploring floral themes in the 1961 Winter Garden Series, yet it is not a genre that we immediately associate with him. Nonetheless, even a moment with Summer Still-Life (Bouquet) of 1961 is sufficient to identify its creator. Still Life is built up with the gestural marks so au courant with painters during this period and documents Shadbolt's personal exploration of "the joyfulness of radiant colour." Here the primary role played by colour is an expressive one. The effect of Shadbolt's perfect chromatic choices inevitably triggers a seratonin-like spike in any viewer.