Fructification Ii
127 cms x 152.4 cms (50 ins x 60 ins)
Signed lower right "Ray Mead"; titled and dated "Fructification II '89" by the artist on the canvas and on a label on the reverse
Lot offered for sale by Sothebys, Toronto at the auction event "Important Canadian Art" held on Wed, Jun 2, 2010.
Lot 137
Lot 137
Estimate: CAD $9,000 - $12,000
Realised: CAD $19,200
Realised: CAD $19,200
Lot description - from the online catalogue*
Provenance:
Miriam Shiell Fine Art, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto
Exhibitions:
Galerie Dresdnere, Toronto
Notes:
A member of Painters Eleven, Mead brought from his native England a sharp sense of design and a facility that gave distinction to his work in the commercial art field. Like Bush, Cahen, Town and others, this early and necessary commitment to advertising, magazine illustration and related activities supported their real ambitions as painters. In this way they were not unlike their predecessors in the Group of Seven.
Mead had studied at the Slade School in London just before being caught up in the war. As a travelling pilot instructor in Canada and the United States he arrived in Toronto with an informed sense of both European and American developments. Indeed, he was as cognizant of international art as Cahen was, and it shows in the scale, colour and articulation of his canvases. He would have been at home in the New York art world during its post-war years had his life taken him there.
Mead's allegiance to the aims and purposes of Painters Eleven, however, gave a particular elegance to the overall impact of that remarkable group of painters. Mead was capable of both lush, saturated and complex compositions and of presenting works that were spare, eccentrically balanced, and seemingly achieved with the least means. His achievement, as is brilliantly evident in this canvas, has yet to be fully recognized.
Miriam Shiell Fine Art, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto
Exhibitions:
Galerie Dresdnere, Toronto
Notes:
A member of Painters Eleven, Mead brought from his native England a sharp sense of design and a facility that gave distinction to his work in the commercial art field. Like Bush, Cahen, Town and others, this early and necessary commitment to advertising, magazine illustration and related activities supported their real ambitions as painters. In this way they were not unlike their predecessors in the Group of Seven.
Mead had studied at the Slade School in London just before being caught up in the war. As a travelling pilot instructor in Canada and the United States he arrived in Toronto with an informed sense of both European and American developments. Indeed, he was as cognizant of international art as Cahen was, and it shows in the scale, colour and articulation of his canvases. He would have been at home in the New York art world during its post-war years had his life taken him there.
Mead's allegiance to the aims and purposes of Painters Eleven, however, gave a particular elegance to the overall impact of that remarkable group of painters. Mead was capable of both lush, saturated and complex compositions and of presenting works that were spare, eccentrically balanced, and seemingly achieved with the least means. His achievement, as is brilliantly evident in this canvas, has yet to be fully recognized.
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 Sothebys auction house for permission to use.
(*) Text and/or Image might be subject matter of Copyright. Check with Sothebys auction house for permission to use.