Lot 32: Robert Burns Hedrick 1930 - Canadian oil on canvas

Robert Burns Hedrick 1930 - Canadian oil on canvas Altitude 84 x 48 inches 213.3 x 121.9 centimeters on verso signed, titled and dated 1961 Literature:Robert Fulford, Toronto Daily Star, April 16, 1960 Provenance:Gallery Moos Ltd., Toronto Private Collection, Toronto Although he had previously shown his work to favourable reviews in other venues, Robert Hedrick's first notable solo exhibition took place in 1960 at The Isaacs Gallery in Toronto. Robert Fulford wrote glowingly of those paintings: "They never betray the loose, romantic, slapdash approach which paralyzes so much art of this kind.....they are carried off with consistency and discipline, the painter carrying the same thrusting stroke and the same colours insistently across the canvas, in time with confident inner rhythm." Hedrick became an active member of The Isaacs Gallery's stable of artists which included, among others, Michael Snow, Gordon Rayner, Harold Town, Graham Coughtry, John Meredith and Joyce Wieland, all of whose works were shown alongside those by members of Painters Eleven in Toronto Painting: 1953 - 1965, the landmark 1972 exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada organized by a young curator named Dennis Reid. Altitude, like the four large canvases included in that exhibition, is a beautiful and engaging example of Hedrick's signature approach to abstract painting. Please note: this work is unframed.