A true technical and chromatic tour de force, Jacques Hurtubise’s Lucrèce (1965) dazzles us with its electrifying presence. Perfectly symmetrical patterns create an illusory space that projects a strong optical effect. The combination of pure cadmium yellow and pure magenta heightens the tension across the entire picture plane, like an explosion or a thunderclap. Here, Hurtubise reinterprets the Abstract Expressionist gesture and Tachiste form in a hard-edge style that conditions and deconstructs both line and plane, like a series of freeze frames. After 1965, many of Hurtubise’s paintings were titled with female names, adding an enigmatic touch to his personal mythology. Lucrèce (1965) is a landmark work from his most accomplished repertoire of that period.
In 1967, Jacques Hurtubise, along with Jack Bush, represented Canada at the 9th São Paulo Biennale in Brazil. Jean-René Ostiguy, then curator of Canadian art at the National Gallery of Canada, who curated the Biennale, could not speak highly enough of Hurtubise in his catalogue essay: “Hurtubise’s creative genius now asserts itself through a perfectly controlled technique. The designs of his stencils are organic, mineral, plant life, or simply geometric ... When optical vibration comes together with perfect balance between the background and the design, all these images—spots, spark discharges, mirage algae, crosses and rosettes, flowers, leaves, and diamonds—fade away before the omnipresence of a respiration, a coloured movement, which is perhaps simply the lyrical texture of the colour.”
