Lot 24: Paul-Émile Borduas 1905 - 1960 Canadian watercolour and ink on paper Aquarelle no. 4

Paul-Émile Borduas 1905 - 1960 Canadian watercolour and ink on paper Aquarelle no. 4
14 x 18 inches 35.6 x 45.7 centimeters
Provenance:A gift from the Artist to a
Private Collection, New York
Private Collection, Toronto This bright watercolour was done in New York, where Paul-Émile Borduas lived from the fall of 1953 until 1955, after which time he moved to Paris where he remained until his death in 1960. Traveling to the United States during the McCarthy years was not easy for Borduas, as his writings and associations caused the American border authorities to suspect him of being a communist sympathizer. But once there, he found New York incredibly stimulating. He saw the work of the American Abstract Expressionists and he began to use a palette knife to apply paint, which freed him from the formalism of painting in a remarkable way. This led to an opening-up of space, which resulted in watercolour and ink-based works such as Aquarelle no. 4, which is concerned with light, space and colour alone. Ultimately, it is a true abstraction of the simplest type. There is no reference to a subject, other than to define the work by its media as given in the title.
This work is included in François-Marc Gagnon's catalogue raisonné on the artist's work online at www.borduas.concordia.ca/en/about/index.php