Lot 112: JOHN GRAHAM COUGHTRY, FIGURE STUDY II, oil on paper, 44 ins x 59 ins; 121.9 cms x 152.4 cms

JOHN GRAHAM COUGHTRYFIGURE STUDY IIoil on papersigned and dated ‘62 44 ins x 59 ins; 121.9 cms x 152.4 cms Provenance:The Isaacs Gallery, Toronto Private Collection, MontrealLiterature:Art Gallery of Ontario: Selected Works, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1990, page 334.Anna Hudson, “Disarming Conventions of Nudity in Canadian Art” in The Nude in Canadian Modern Art 1920-1950, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, 2009, page 80.Jeffrey Spalding “Introduction: Going Out on a Limb” in Kim Dorland, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario, 2014, page 6.Note:Dr. Anna Hudson has remarked that it is landscape painting that defines Canadian Art. Certainly a survey of Canadian art demonstrates the irrefutable accuracy of her statement. Even today one is struck by the paucity of figure work by Canadian artists exhibited in galleries or appearing on the market. Jeffrey Spalding quotes Graham Coughtry who spoke “for a new generation (of Canadian artists) by infamously exclaiming that ‘every damn tree in the country has been painted’.” In the early sixties Markle, Snow and Burton were incorporating the human figure into their work as was Coughtry, despite the fact that according to the AGO at that time “formalist criteria dismissed the figure as an inappropriate artistic concern.” A further wave of resistance would come later with discussions surrounding the male gaze.This lot is, however, as much a manifestation of the artist’s delight in celebrating the sensuosity and pleasure of paint as it is a celebration of flesh although admittedly, much work from this period, particularly the Two Figures works is sexually charged.Estimate: $9,000–12,000