Ancient Landscape With Fetish Figure, 1989
55 cms (21.65 ins)
Signed and dated /89
made in 1989
Lot offered for sale by Waddington's, Toronto at the auction event "Contemporary Art" held on Thu, Oct 1, 2020.
Lot 46
Lot 46
Estimate: CAD $4,000 - $6,000
Sale price withheld by the Auction house
Sale price withheld by the Auction house
Lot description - from the online catalogue*
Provenance:
Wade Gallery, Los Angeles
Private Collection, Toronto
Notes:
Peter Aspell was one of Canada's finest post-war colourists, emerging from a group of Vancouver painters as a defiant and unique voice. Focussing primarily on portraiture and the figure during a time when many painters were preoccupied with abstraction, and heavily informed by symbolism, mythology, and historical reference, Aspell emphatically explored the bounds of expressive painting. "Ancient Landscape with Fetish Figure,Á 1989, is an exceptional example of the artist's feverish approach, depicting pictographic figures blurring into a mythic landscape. The palette recalls oranges and ochres, clay and rock illuminated by the flicker of a fire or the burn of the sun below the horizon. Long red arms and a pair of strange green pipes splay across the right of the image, while a small figure in all-white floats nearby. It's difficult to discern what is a person and what is a totem carving, or which figure is meant to be the fetish of the title: the bodies all seem to emerge from the uneasy ground. Aspell's mythologies here seem chiselled straight out of the stone wall.
Wade Gallery, Los Angeles
Private Collection, Toronto
Notes:
Peter Aspell was one of Canada's finest post-war colourists, emerging from a group of Vancouver painters as a defiant and unique voice. Focussing primarily on portraiture and the figure during a time when many painters were preoccupied with abstraction, and heavily informed by symbolism, mythology, and historical reference, Aspell emphatically explored the bounds of expressive painting. "Ancient Landscape with Fetish Figure,Á 1989, is an exceptional example of the artist's feverish approach, depicting pictographic figures blurring into a mythic landscape. The palette recalls oranges and ochres, clay and rock illuminated by the flicker of a fire or the burn of the sun below the horizon. Long red arms and a pair of strange green pipes splay across the right of the image, while a small figure in all-white floats nearby. It's difficult to discern what is a person and what is a totem carving, or which figure is meant to be the fetish of the title: the bodies all seem to emerge from the uneasy ground. Aspell's mythologies here seem chiselled straight out of the stone wall.
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.