Lot 44: Jean Albert McEwen 1923 - 1999 Canadian oil on

Jean Albert McEwen 1923 - 1999 Canadian oil on canvas La folie conduisant l'amour 20 1/8 x 20 1/8 inches 51.1 x 51.1 centimeters on verso signed, titled and dated 1967 Provenance:Galerie Agnès Lefort, Montreal Private Collection, Montreal Jean McEwen's work in the late 1950s and into the 1960s and 1970s was concerned primarily with colour. His works ranged from white on white paintings to those with multiple layers of surging, saturated colour. His surfaces also ranged in type from those with smooth, thinly applied layers of oil paint to works with thickly vibrating impastos. His interest in colour, space, line and their relation one to the other within the confines of a canvas is completely engaging, and the results are both visually stimulating and enduringly beautiful. In La folie conduisant l'amour, we have the added interest of the title, which translates as Madness Leading Love. While at first we might find the powerful contrast of the blackish purple and intense red maddening, in prolonged study of them we are beguiled by the interplay of the two colours. Importantly, they are divided by a thin band of violet, which serves to mediate the two, a chromatic marriage counsellor of sorts, settling the two dominant colours into a delightful harmony.