Lot 43: George Edmund Alleyn 1931 - 2004 Canadian acrylic and aluminum on canvas Agression I

George Edmund Alleyn 1931 - 2004 Canadian acrylic and aluminum on canvas Agression I
51 x 38 inches 129.5 x 96.5 centimeters on verso signed, titled and dated 1966 Literature:National Gallery of Canada, a similar 1966 canvas entitled Icarus reproduced, www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artwork.php?mkey=6952 (accessed September 8, 2011)
Provenance:Collection of Mrs. Renée Dupuis Angers
Private Collection, Montreal George Edmund Alleyn studied at the École des beaux-arts in Quebec under Jean Paul Lemieux. Alleyn went to France in 1955, where he lived and exhibited his work until 1971. By the late 1950s his work was gaining widespread international attention. In 1958 and 1960, Alleyn was included in a selection of Canadian paintings featured in a Guggenheim Museum competition, and in 1959 he won the bronze medal at the Bienal de São Paulo. He represented Canada in the Venice Biennale in 1960, and in 1970 exhibited work at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. The National Gallery of Canada has several works by the artist in its permanent collection. Agression I is a fine and rare example of Alleyn's mid-1960s work. In 1966 the National Gallery purchased a similar work entitled Icarus - from the same series of paintings; both works share the same upside-down figure motif.