William Perehudoff: Abstraction and the Canadian Landscape

Inspired by his participation in the legendary Emma Lake Artist Workshops of the early 1960s, William Perehudoff had become a central figure in Canadian abstract painting by 1970, creating works that thoughtfully combine the hard-edged with the atmospheric. Forwarding modernist ideals while fearlessly experimenting with colour, texture and form, Perehudoff became internationally acclaimed even though he never relocated to a major art centre from his hometown of Saskatoon. Despite his remote location, Perehudoff established lasting friendships with influential New York-based critics like Clement Greenberg and artists such as Kenneth Noland, the American Colour Field painter, with whom he shared an interest in fostering a viewer’s ‘aesthetic feelings’ ­­when looking at his paintings; that is, emotions like wonder or joy prompted by the work’s formal qualities, like its colour palette or size.

Painted in the mid-1970s, AC-77-15 (lot 344) and Okema #7 (lot 345), are examples of Perehudoff at the height of his powers. By this time, Perehudoff was widely recognized as an “ambitious and innovative painter” who was responding to the work of his international contemporaries (like Noland, as well as Jules Olitski and Larry Poons) without becoming derivative.[1]

Composed of diffuse planes of colour superimposed by solid parallel bars, AC-77-15 and Okema #7 find the artist exploring the dynamics between light and dark, transparency and opacity, and foreground and background. These formal considerations, however, are further shaped by Pereduhoff’s deep attachment to the landscape in which he lived and worked – the vast spaces of the Canadian Prairies, with their expansive horizons and generous skies. The horizontal breadth of the former, with its three bars in varying hues of sky blue, suggests a landscape reduced to its elements, while the subtly wavering vertical lines comprising the latter’s background bring to mind the shimmering and elusive quality of the northern lights.

[1] Roald Nasgaard, Abstract Painting in Canada, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre; Halifax: Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 2007), 290.

ABOUT THE AUCTION

Our major spring auction of Canadian and International Fine Art features an exceptional collection of important works by noted Canadian and international artists including Frederick Banting, Jack Bush, Clarence Gagnon, William Kurelek, Jean Paul Lemieux, J.W. Morrice, William Perehudoff, Takao Tanabe, Bernard Buffet, Jean Dufy, Francisco Zúñiga, Larry Poons, Jules Olitski, and many more.

The auction is offered online May 8 – 29, 2025.

Previews at our Toronto gallery located at 100 Broadview Avenue, are available:

Wednesday, May 21 from 10 am to 7 pm
Thursday, May 22 from 10 am to 5 pm
Friday, May 23 from 10 am to 5 pm
Saturday, May 24 from 12 pm to 4 pm
Sunday, May 25 from 12 pm to 4 pm
Monday, May 26 from 10 am to 5 pm
Tuesday, May 27 from 10 am to 5 pm
Wednesday, May 28 from 10 am to 5 pm
Thursday, May 29 from 10 am to 12 pm

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