Additional Images

Provenance:

Thielsen Galleries, London, ON;
Private collection, British Columbia

Literature:

Karen Wilkin, Jack Bush (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd, 1984) 32

Note:

Painted at the beginning of Bush’s association with the Painters Eleven—the group having formed the same year, 1953—Sailboats is an excellent example of the artist's earliest forays into abstraction. This year in the artist’s life was pivotal, also marking a key encounter with seminal American art critic Clement Greenberg, which would alter his artistic path from then on. It was Greenberg who would suggest that Bush try experimenting with different techniques, nudging him into the direction for which he would become known, and away from his Abstract Expressionist style. Inspired by his watercolour sketches, Bush began simplifying his compositions by using thinly applied washes of colour. Sailboats is thus an example of this foundational form.

During this period, Bush used his feelings as the foundation of his art, attempting to communicate with the viewer through emotion and abstraction—less concerned with literal depictions than with essences.

Bush would not turn to painting full-time until 1968, instead leaning on a paycheck from his job as a commercial illustrator. His artmaking was of significant importance to him, providing escape and relief from his workaday troubles. Even his therapist of 30 years, J. Allan Walters, encouraged Bush to explore abstraction as a method of working through various issues in his life. Art historian Ken Carpenter explains, "Bush overcame his suffering in and through his art…He was an artist who was concerned with sentiment but who was never sentimental in his art."