Lot 32: JOHN GRAHAM COUGHTRY, RECLINING FIGURE MOVING, #10, JAN. 1980, oil on canvas, 72 ins x 60 ins; 182.9 cms x 152.4 cms

JOHN GRAHAM COUGHTRYRECLINING FIGURE MOVING, #10, JAN. 1980oil on canvassigned, titled and dated ‘80 on the reverse 72 ins x 60 ins; 182.9 cms x 152.4 cms Provenance:The Isaacs Gallery Ltd., TorontoArt Sales and Rental, Art Gallery of Ontario, TorontoPrivate Collection, TorontoThe road towards progressive art in Canada in the mid-20th century was convoluted, taking many unexpected twists and turns. This complex history exerts a considerable impact upon the development of the career and art of Graham Coughtry (1931-1999). The reaction to the prospect of abstract art in post-war Canada was outright hostile. Following graduation in 1945 Riopelle departed in 1946 to the friendlier environs of Paris, not to return to residence in Canada for decades. Paul-Émile Borduas was fired from his teaching job as a result of the radical nature of his art and the 1948 manifesto Refus Global.In Toronto, prospects for abstraction looked even more meagre. The principal exhibition vehicles were the art society annual shows. Abstract art was openly disparaged by many of the members of the O.S.A. who still clung to the tenets of the Canadian landscape. Within this context a group of Toronto artists banded together to find a more conducive environment to exhibit. In fall 1953 they held the spirited exhibition Abstracts at Home at the Robert Simpson Toronto store. They formed Painters 11 and held joint exhibitions through 1960. Miraculously the tide completely turned.Hart House, previously the stronghold of A.Y. Jackson and the Canadian Group of Painters, hosted a series of exhibitions of abstract art: Graham Sutherland and the British St. Ives Group, Roloff Beny, William Ronald, and a two-person exhibition of Michael Snow and Graham Coughtry. Where previously abstraction was shunned, every major educational centre reversed its faculty in favour of abstraction. As young students at the Ontario College of Art, Gordon Rayner and Dennis Burton (see lot 83) witnessed the Hart House exhibitions and vowed for ever more to paint only abstractions. They, along with Michael Snow, John Meredith, Joyce Wieland and Graham Coughtry, would form the nucleus of the Isaacs Gallery group, who all made primarily abstract art through 1962. Toronto Mayor, Nathan Phillips, took offense at some of the figurative works by Graham Coughtry in the 1955 Hart House exhibition and caused them to be temporarily removed. Incongruously, this minor episode breathed new life into representational art. Once again figuration could be considered radical not déclassé. The entire enterprise of the Isaacs group of artists changed direction, they evolved to embrace abstract figuration admixed with their admiration for dadaism and jazz.Coughtry, born in Quebec, studied at the School of Art and Design at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts from 1948-1949 and completed studies at the Ontario College of Art from 1949-1953. Despite the brevity of his Montreal studies one wonders whether the legacy of fauvistic colour and figuration from Morrice, Lyman (see lot 67) through to Goodridge Roberts might have inspired Coughtry and the rich lush impasto application of his works. Coughtry exhibited in group exhibitions across Canada, the United States and Europe., including the prestigious Venice Biennale (1960), the Sao Paolo International Biennial (1959), and the Guggenheim International, New York (1958, 1965). Graham Coughtry’s work is represented in many public and private collections in North America, including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo, and The Detroit Institute of Art. Reclining Figure Moving, #10, is a perfect example of the attributes that brought to Coughty the many accolades in recognition of his achievement as Canada’s most respected abstract figurative artist.Estimate: $25,000–35,000