Lot 138: RONALD ALBERT MARTIN B.1943

RONALD ALBERT MARTIN B.1943 MASS PLANE BLACK, ONE IN THE SERIES stamp of a previous owner and dated 1976 - 1977 on a label on the reverse acrylic on canvas 18 by 24 in. 45.7 by 61.0 cm.

Roald Nasgaard, Abstract Painting in Canada, Toronto, 2007, p. 284

Private Collection, Toronto

Private Collection, Vancouver

This painting can be dated to 1976-77. From 1974 on, Martin's paintings are black. The early ones are characterized by broad sweeping gestures of both the brush and later the artist's fingers and hands which move the paint across the canvas.

This Mass Plane Black is one in a series and less gestural in formation. The paint is thick and gooey and in some works, ten to fifteen gallons of paint were used. Nasgaard notes, "The paint flowed and covered, yielded to or resisted and sometimes overruled the artist's hand or the tool used to spread it. It glistened or pulled darkly in on itself."