Lot 32: Bertram Charles (B.C.) Binning 1909 - 1976

Bertram Charles (B.C.) Binning 1909 - 1976 Canadian oil on canvas Porto Pacifica 35 x 42 inches 88.9 x 106.7 centimeters on verso signed, titled and dated 1966 Literature:Abraham J. Rogatnick, Ian M. Thom and Adele Weder, B.C. Binning, 2006, page 151 Provenance:Acquired at The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria sale of 1969 by Douglas Cole, Vancouver By descent to the present Private Collection, Vancouver One of the West Coast's seminal figures in the art world, during the 1960s B.C. Binning was the Head of the Department of Fine Arts at the University of British Columbia. During this time, his work became increasingly abstract, moving from abstracted images of harbours and ships to simple shapes and colour fields. Busy with his many academic duties at this time, he produced only a small number of paintings in a group he called Motifs. Although the paintings were abstract, a connection to his environment was still retained, as this title indicates. Binning also stated that the space of the West Coast was suffused into these works, stating "There is a bigness of shape around B.C. that you can't get away from.....Whether you are looking at the mighty trees, or up into the mountains - or at the expansive space of the sea - there is this tremendous scale. I would imagine that this comes into these works." Porto Pacifica is a vibrant painting, its pulsating orange colour field emphatically intersected by black lines, boldly pushing out beyond the edge of the canvas.