Lot 234: Bertram Charles (B.C.) Binning 1909 - 1976

Bertram Charles (B.C.) Binning 1909 - 1976 Canadian oil on gesso panel Atomic Fountain "9 x 8 inches 22.9 x 20.3 centimeters initialed and on verso signed, titled on a label and inscribed """"CS Band"""" on the label and on the board Provenance:Laing Galleries, Toronto Charles S. Band, Toronto Estate of Helen E. Band, Toronto Exhibited:Laing Galleries, Toronto, Exhibition of Paintings by B.C. Binning, December 3, 1954, catalogue #9 B.C. Binning's painting in the collection of Charles S. Band is symbolic, for it is a keystone piece in a great Canadian art collection containing works by artists from the east to the west. Lawren Harris's move to Vancouver in 1940 precipitated an interest in the west Coast artistic community. Harris had a keen interest in Binning's work and the two would soon become close friends. The arts community in Canada was interwoven and Band corresponded with Binning from the 1950s onwards. The Band collection came to include some of Binning's strongest works from the lat 1940s and early 1950s. Band donated two of his Binning masterworks to museums - White Ship, 1948 was donated to the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1970 and Convey at Rendezvous, 1948, was donated to the Vancouver Art Gallery. Atomic Fountain is also a testament to this important period in Binning's work, in which ships, harbours, signals, buoys and geometric shapes create linear and colourful compositions. "