Falaises au couchant

Situated within the same chromatic lineage as Vol nuptial (1966), which is part of the collection of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Falaises au couchant (1967) is similar in composition to another painting from the same year titled Lux, which was presented during BYDealers’ Canadian art auction on May 31, 2018 (lot no. 55). Falaises au couchant is a superb standout from other works of this period, as much for the irrepressible force of its composition as for its skillful use of impasto. Spattering, glazing, stamping, scraping and rubbing are among the many pictorial approaches used in this dramatic work, which draws liberally upon both Surrealism and the Automatistes, as well as the artist’s own tireless imagination. Like Lux, this work bears signs marking it as a precursor to the series Volets du temps (1977-1978)—such as its orthogonal construction—and to the series Des rêves et du hasard (1987-1988)—with its resolutely centred subjects.