Untitled (Abstract Composition in Blues)

Provenance:
Private Collection, British Columbia
Notes:
Robert Houle’s practice has been defined by an acute treatment of colour, light, and immediacy with a keen sense of Indigenous knowledge and tradition. This early work was one of several large rectangular canvases produced in 1972, while Houle was a student at McGill University developing his abstract practice. The origin of these works was twofold. They drew their subject matter from a series of love poems written by Houle’s friend Brenda Gureshko - the concept of "love" proving rich material. Stylistically, the compositions were influenced by the geometric motifs found in traditional Ojibway textiles and design - specifically patterns that Houle encountered in the 1943 book Ojibway Crafts by Carrie A. Lyford. Houle stated, "I found the geometrical patterns represented in the book had a spiritual connection to traditional ritual and ceremonial objects, and this in turn led to a series of geometric acrylic paintings."

---

The field is dominated by a strong diagonal bisecting the canvas, broken up by steeply-angled lozenges and facets. The resulting darts and tessellations are rendered in flat, closely-hued planes of blues and greens. In these we can see the formal influence of the contemporary American abstractionists working the late 60s and early 70s, in particular the monochromatic constructions of Frank Stella and the sparse clarity of Barnett Newman’s colour fields. Taken together with explicit reference to the designs of ritual objects, the muted pastel geometry presents a vibrant dialogue between the sacred and the abstract. A master colourist, Houle draws an assertive through-line between traditional spiritualism and clarified modernism.