Additional Images

Provenance:

Private Collection, Ontario acquired as "Ribbon Road, 1967" at an exhibition of McLarty's paintings held at Reed College, Portland, Oregon

Note:

Painter, instructor and lithographer William James “Jack” McLarty was one of Oregon’s most noteworthy modern painters who flourished in the 1960s. McLarty was born in 1919 in Seattle but grew up in downtown Portland helping his parents who operated small, working-class hotels. Except for brief periods, he lived in Portland for the rest of his life. The modern city life inspired the bold and often witty imagery of many of his paintings, prints, and drawings for nearly seventy years.

McLarty was hired as an instructor at the Portland Museum Art School where he taught until 1981. This lot has an exhibition advertisement attached to the verso headed “Northwest Viewpoints” announcing the show “Jack McLarty” which was held at the Portland Art Museum, Oregon Art Institute from January 6-28, 1988.

McLarty’s paintings and prints are figurative works that relate to Surrealism and German Expressionism as well as the work of French artist Georges Rouault and Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Similar canvases such as "Giant Runner" (1963) and "Giant in Trouble" (1982) show a recurring figure in McLarty's art—a giant seemingly bent on destruction looming in a Portland-like city tunnel.