Provenance:

The Estate of Margaret Ferguson, North York.
Private Collection, Ontario.

Note:

One of the mediums which Alexandra Luke used with amazing force was watercolour, employed either in the pure state or combined inventively with ink or collage elements, such as Japanese rice paper, fabric or even birch bark. One of her watercolours from 1964, the same year that this work of art was completed, is titled “Adventure,” a title which Luke used repeatedly but which seems to apply with special relevance to the paintings she created during her last decade.

The composition of this painting is more loose and abstractly handled than in many of the artist’s other watercolour work, where Luke would use a sort of grid, within which she placed blocks of colour. A strong playful element is often present in Luke’s work and is evident within “Composition, 1964.” The painter allows the watercolour to form pools of color which she interrupts with a delicate black line that seems to melt into the paper. Several other works from 1964 have related titles such as “Composition in Blue and Yellow” or “Red Composition.” In each of these works Luke experimented with colour, composition, and space dimensions, as Hans Hofmann had suggested she do, urging the artist towards a freedom and spontaneity within her work. However, the unusually large size of “Composition, 1964” suggests its importance in her oeuvre – only about three other works of this approximate size are known, all dating from the period between 1963 and 1965.

We would like to thank art historian, Joan Murray, for providing information for the foregoing essay.