Harold Barling Town
Harold Barling Town
1924 - 1990
CGP CPE CSGA OC OSA P11 RCA
Born in Toronto in 1924, Harold Town studied at the Western Technical School and the Ontario College of Art until 1945. Following his studies, he worked as an illustrator for Maclean’s and Mayfair before becoming immersed in the art scene. He also became a lively writer, contributing essays for catalogues, and was the coauthor of the Tom Thomson biography The Silence and the Storm. Among others, he illustrated Leonard Cohen’s book Beautiful Losers and Irving Layton’s Love Where the Nights are Long: An Anthology of Canadian Love Poems.
Town traveled to New York City and Chicago in 1948, where he saw the works of American Abstract Expressionist artists. Outspoken and charismatic, he became a seminal figure in the development of abstract art in Canada. In 1953 he joined Painters Eleven, an innovative group of abstract painters that included Jack Bush and William Ronald. Active from 1953 to 1960, they exposed the public to modernist movements such as Abstract Expressionism.
Town worked in a variety of media – painting, printmaking, assemblage and collage. Collage was said to be at the heart of his work, and David Burnett wrote that they were “a complex, multi-directional interweaving of technique, materials, experience and expression.” He rocketed to prominence in the 1950s, creating an explosion of innovative work in many different series. He achieved considerable recognition for his autographic prints, a series of monoprint works produced between 1953 and 1959. Widely appreciated nationally, their reputation spread internationally as they received awards in Yugoslavia, Chile and New York. In 1958 he was awarded what was the largest public art commission to that date in Canada – a 10 by 37 foot mural for a hydroelectric dam at Cornwall, which inaugurated the St. Lawrence Seaway. Between 1957 and 1964, he had 15 solo exhibitions – in Toronto, Montreal, Regina, Vancouver, New York and New Jersey, and his work was included in about 70 group exhibitions in Canada and internationally. He was known for his inventive imagery, expressionist brushwork and his control over his painterly images, which engaged in a push-pull of dynamic tension across his surfaces.
Town exhibited internationally extensively – he represented Canada in the 1956 and 1965 Venice Biennale, and participated in the Milan Triennial, the Bienal de São Paulo, Documenta in Kassel and the World’s Fair in Brussels. He was the recipient of a Guggenheim award in 1960, and in 1966 received an honorary doctorate from York University in Toronto as well as the Order Of Canada. His work is in the collections of London’s Tate Gallery, and the Guggenheim, Metropolitain Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Retrospectives of his work were held at the Windsor Art Gallery in 1975 and the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1986. Town passed away in 1990, remembered for his quintessential part in shaping the Toronto modern art scene of the 1950s and 1960s.
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Les résultats record de la Maison Heffel
Venice from a Postcard by Harold Barling Town vendu pour $67,250
Harold Barling Town
Venice from a Postcard
48 x 42 in, 121.9 x 106.7 cm
huile et Lucite 44 sur panneau
Estimation : 20 000 $ - 30 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 67 250 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Post-War & Contemporary Art, mercredi, 15 juillet 2020
July by Harold Barling Town vendu pour $49,250
Harold Barling Town
July
71 x 48 in, 180.3 x 121.9 cm
collage de techniques mixtes sur panneau
Estimation : 30 000 $ - 50 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 49 250 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Spring 2017 - 1st Session, mercredi, 24 mai 2017
Untitled by Harold Barling Town vendu pour $37,250
Harold Barling Town
Untitled
70 x 80 in, 177.8 x 203.2 cm
huile sur toile
Estimation : 25 000 $ - 30 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 37 250 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Fall 2017 - 1st Session, mercredi, 22 novembre 2017
Bomber's Dream by Harold Barling Town vendu pour $34,250
Harold Barling Town
Bomber's Dream
60 x 60 in, 152.4 x 152.4 cm
huile et Lucite 44 sur toile
Estimation : 12 000 $ - 16 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 34 250 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Abstraction, jeudi, 25 juin 2020
Untitled by Harold Barling Town vendu pour $32,450
Harold Barling Town
Untitled
70 x 80 in, 177.8 x 203.2 cm
huile sur toile
Estimation : 30 000 $ - 50 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 32 450 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Spring 2015 - 1st Session, mercredi, 27 mai 2015
The Yard by Harold Barling Town vendu pour $31,250
Harold Barling Town
The Yard
36 7/8 x 48 in, 93.7 x 121.9 cm
huile sur panneau
Estimation : 25 000 $ - 35 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 31 250 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Post-War & Contemporary Art, jeudi, 24 novembre 2022
The Centre Held by Harold Barling Town vendu pour $31,250
Harold Barling Town
The Centre Held
36 x 36 in, 91.4 x 91.4 cm
huile et Lucite 44 sur panneau
Estimation : 30 000 $ - 40 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 31 250 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Fall 2017 - 1st Session, mercredi, 22 novembre 2017
Spectre at the Departure by Harold Barling Town vendu pour $29,500
Harold Barling Town
Spectre at the Departure
39 x 39 in, 99 x 99 cm
huile sur toile
Estimation : 20 000 $ - 30 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 29 500 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Spring 2015 - 1st Session, mercredi, 27 mai 2015
Toast by Harold Barling Town vendu pour $29,250
Harold Barling Town
Toast
16 x 20 in, 40.6 x 50.8 cm
huile et Lucite sur toile
Estimation : 10 000 $ - 15 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 29 250 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Spring 2009 - 1st Session, mercredi, 17 juin 2009
Cornucopia by Harold Barling Town vendu pour $29,250
Harold Barling Town
Cornucopia
24 3/4 x 30 3/4 in, 62.9 x 78.1 cm
huile et Lucite sur toile
Estimation : 15 000 $ - 20 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 29 250 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Spring 2013 - 1st Session, mercredi, 15 mai 2013