Lot 1
SYBIL ANDREWS
Lot 1 Details
SYBIL ANDREWS
IN FULL CRY
colour linocut
signed, titled, and numbered 40/50
sight 11 ins x 16 ins; 27.9 cms x 40.6 cms
Estimate $25,000-$35,000
Additional Images
Provenance:
Acquired from the artist
Private Collection, Toronto, ON
Note:
One of two equestrian-themed works in this auction (see lot 10 - Molly Lamb Bobak, Harness Racing), Andrews transforms a familiar genre scene of equestrians on the hunt into a modernist study of motion. The artist removes all extraneous details—including the fox and hounds—drawing focus sharply towards the riders. During her career, Andrews made several linocuts depicting sporting themes, though her interest was less documentary than an enduring interest in capturing the thrill and exhilaration of these activities.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art which holds a print from this same edition in their permanent collection, notes that the composition exhibits the same “velocity and potential for danger” that she captures with motorbikes in Speedway. The Met cites the print’s “machinelike aesthetic,” which they link to the artist’s work as a welder in an airplane factory during World War I. That said, the arciform shapes seem to tend more towards the free-flowing than the Fordian. The reductionist equine forms echo the tessellated work of M.C. Escher in the way that the subjects mirror and nest into one another—one needs look no further than the tightly-strung hocks of the lead horse and the way in which they curve around the head of the palomino in the rear. Andrews’s vigorous lines so effortlessly draw the eye around the page in a never-ending loop, proving that in this instance, less is most certainly more.
CONDITION DETAILS
The work's condition is commensurate with age. The colours are vibrant. Due to the fine nature of the paper, there is cockling throughout.
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