Lot 160
David Alexander Colville (1920-2013)
Lot 160 Details
David Alexander Colville (1920-2013), Canadian
CAT ON THE FENCE, 1956
Colour silkscreen; signed and dated 1956 in pencil lower right, signed, titled, dated 1956 and annotated by the artist: ”Serigraph edition of 20 only” in pencil verso.
Image 21" x 28" — 53.3 x 71.1 cm.
Estimate $8,000-$10,000
Additional Images
Provenance:
Dominion Gallery, Montreal, Inventory no. F2318
Literature:
David Burnett, Colville, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1983, reproduced, p. 163
Helen J. Dow, The Art of Alex Colville, Toronto, 1972, p. 159 for Cat on a Fence, reproduced in colour, pl. 63
Note:
After the war, Colville turned to depicting animals and landscapes.
Colville has said, “I paint almost always people and animals whom I consider to be wholly good.” To be acting properly to be performing the right action which accords with a divinely appointed purpose. Things (such as the cat) are acting properly when walking and are on the prowl (Dow 1972, p. 69) and which are designed to move and are more truly themselves when they are so...” Colville’s serigraph print Cat on a Fence “the frame of reference is a lattice fence in the middle ground along which the animal is walking parallel to the picture frame.” (Dow, p. 72)