Lot 1
DAVID A. THAUBERGER, R.C.A.
Additional Images
Provenance:
The Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto
Note:
David Thauberger’s (b.1948) work typically depicts the vernacular architecture of the prairies: corner stores, grain elevators - or, here, a shuttered arcade. The scenes are simplified, but this is not to be read as something reductive - rather, his subjects are distilled into their fundamental forms. Surfaces are pristine and precise, boldly animated by bright strips of primary colour. There is frequently text, found on signs and shopfronts. Otherwise, the scenes bear no evidence of occupation or human presence. In Signs of the Times, this vacancy is rendered literal. There remains, however, a sense of proximity: this place becomes a locus, an anchor, while the radio mast looming over the scene suggests the expansive horizon beyond. With the directness of a picture postcard, Thauberger elevates and animates the ordinary.