The Unique One, 2012
14 cms (5.51 ins)
Signed, titled and dated on the reverse
made in 2012
Lot offered for sale by Waddington's, Toronto at the auction event "Contemporary Art" held on Thu, Oct 1, 2020.
Lot 5
Lot 5
Estimate: CAD $2,500 - $3,500
Sale price withheld by the Auction house
Sale price withheld by the Auction house
Lot description - from the online catalogue*
Provenance:
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto
Notes:
Quebec-based painter Fabian Jean's works are at once quietly surreal and intimately familiar, taking formal cues from historical sources and infused with dreamlike interventions - occupying a space somewhere between Sandro Botticelli and Rene Magritte. An array of carefully choreographed formal, even conservative subjects - food-laden still lives, portraits of horses and hounds - are finely rendered in brightly radiant palettes. They are infiltrated and destabilized with surreal additions, giving the impression of a garden party gone awry: a glass of wine is spilled, a dog climbs over the table, a regal creature stands on a pile of books. Ribbons, butterflies, hummingbirds, or branches with fruit seem to weightlessly float across the scenes, flattening the picture plane - these are paintings that emphatically declare that they are paintings.
"The Unique One", 2012, is a superb example of Jean's work. The subject is a shorebird, standing in a strange, medieval garden and blown up out of scale: it is nearly as large as the tree next to it, and smaller birds flit by its feet like marginalia. The title of the piece is inscribed on the chiaroscuro void, next to a floating shell; there is the impression that this is staged, a stuffed specimen on a diorama background. The bird is possibly a yellowlegs, a North American sandpiper - a new world subject as if it were rendered in the Early Renaissance.
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto
Notes:
Quebec-based painter Fabian Jean's works are at once quietly surreal and intimately familiar, taking formal cues from historical sources and infused with dreamlike interventions - occupying a space somewhere between Sandro Botticelli and Rene Magritte. An array of carefully choreographed formal, even conservative subjects - food-laden still lives, portraits of horses and hounds - are finely rendered in brightly radiant palettes. They are infiltrated and destabilized with surreal additions, giving the impression of a garden party gone awry: a glass of wine is spilled, a dog climbs over the table, a regal creature stands on a pile of books. Ribbons, butterflies, hummingbirds, or branches with fruit seem to weightlessly float across the scenes, flattening the picture plane - these are paintings that emphatically declare that they are paintings.
"The Unique One", 2012, is a superb example of Jean's work. The subject is a shorebird, standing in a strange, medieval garden and blown up out of scale: it is nearly as large as the tree next to it, and smaller birds flit by its feet like marginalia. The title of the piece is inscribed on the chiaroscuro void, next to a floating shell; there is the impression that this is staged, a stuffed specimen on a diorama background. The bird is possibly a yellowlegs, a North American sandpiper - a new world subject as if it were rendered in the Early Renaissance.
Most realised prices include the Buyer's Premium of 18-25%, but not the HST/GST Tax.
(*) Text and/or Image might be subject matter of Copyright. Check with Waddington's auction house for permission to use.
(*) Text and/or Image might be subject matter of Copyright. Check with Waddington's auction house for permission to use.