Lot 25: Kazuo Nakamura 1926 - 2002 Canadian oil on board

Kazuo Nakamura 1926 - 2002 Canadian oil on board Autumn: Still Life 29 x 24 inches 73.7 x 61 centimeters signed and dated 1957 and on verso titled on the gallery label Provenance:The George Waddington Galleries, Montreal Private Collection, Montreal Kazuo Nakamura was the quietest member of the boisterous Painters Eleven, and Autumn: Still Life echoes his subtle confidence. This work was painted in 1957, and is from the Painters Eleven time period that brought Nakamura great international exposure - notably at the Canadian Abstract Painting exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Canada, which toured from 1956 to 1958. This attractive still life is transformed beyond realism through Nakamura's favoured linear abstraction that he used primarily in the mid-1950s. Potted plants were also a recurring motif, often with their leaves littered on the ground as seen here. The branches on this plant are starkly bare, but the work is full of rich fall colours; the deep orange leaves and saturated green trees are highlighted by the crisp blue sky. Autumn: Still Life reflects Nakamura's quiet abstract sensitivities and thus the essence of his own distinct contribution to the beginning stages of Canadian abstract painting. A work of this subject matter in a repeated motif entitled Four Plants is in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario.