Lot 9: Jean Albert McEwen 1923 - 1999 Canadian oil on

Jean Albert McEwen 1923 - 1999 Canadian oil on canvas Le drapeau écorché, phase 2, no. 12 (Trou de mémoire) 60 x 60 inches 152.4 x 152.4 centimeters signed and dated 1992 and on verso signed, titled variously and dated on the canvas and 1986 on the gallery labels Literature:Constance Naubert-Riser, Jean McEwen: Colour in Depth: Paintings and Works on Paper, 1951 - 1987, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1987, page 50 Provenance:Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Rental & Sales Gallery, Toronto Private Collection, Montreal In the 1960s Jean McEwen produced a series of works entitled Le drapeau inconnu (The Unknown Flag). In the mid-1980s another related series emerged - Le drapeau écorché (The Slaughtered Flag), of which this is a stunning example. Common to both these series were hot reds and blazing yellows, as in this incandescent golden work. McEwen's brilliance as a colourist is in full play, as his central colour is enlivened with orange, pink and mauve, contrasted with background tones of green. Constance Naubert-Riser writes, "It is only after an examination of all the works in this series that the full critical significance of the title emerges: these 'slaughtered flags' are a reformulation of the problem of underlying structure treated so brilliantly in the 'unknown flags' series. The result of this reformulation is the complete obliteration of the central structure and a reassertion of the nonetheless increasingly threatened margins. So the element of diversity is back in force - the element that is ultimately the uniting feature of this oeuvre and the central paradox of all painting."