Lot 60: Maxwell Bennett Bates 1906 - 1980 Canadian oil on

Maxwell Bennett Bates 1906 - 1980 Canadian oil on canvas Garden Cafe at Empress Hotel 24 x 30 inches 61 x 76.2 centimeters signed and dated 1978 and on verso titled and inscribed ""$600"" on the gallery label Provenance:The Backroom Gallery, Victoria Private Collection, Victoria Private Collection, Vancouver Exhibited:The Backroom Gallery, Victoria, Maxwell Bates: Oils, Watercolours, Drawings, October 17 - 28, 1978 (a copy of the exhibition invitation is attached to the verso) Maxwell Bates was a singular figure in western Canadian art - an architect, poet and painter, he was an expressionist who studied in New York with Max Beckmann and Abraham Rattner. In 1971, he founded the Limners, an artists' group in Victoria that focused on the human figure and the human condition, subjects important to Bates. His most sought-after works are scenes depicting groups of people in socially charged, stage-like settings such as art openings, cocktail parties and restaurant scenes, as in this fine example set in the iconic Empress Hotel in Victoria. In these scenes, people are together, yet apart, each living out their individual drama, emphasized by the strange figure in the background with the mask-like face who turns to face the viewer. In the foreground at the table is Bates himself - he was quite sociable, and sometimes positioned himself in his tableaus. Brilliant colouration in the green banquette and the reds and blues of clothing adds to the striking effect of the painting. Complex, intense and enigmatic, Bates's tableaus such as Garden Cafe at Empress Hotel are rich and compelling.