The thing with the Late 60s Bushes (and i saw an amazing one at Miriam Sellnik Miriam Shiell today), is that one assumes that tthey are like noland or early stella, in their flatness, but their use of thin washes and subtle underpainting, combines a variety of modes of abstraction--here, with the underpainting of light purple on violet, then the impositon of a hot pink element, grounded onto a obliqued angle/tower of decortative colour--decorative colour that could be on couches or pillows or wallpaper, assumes a number of competing narratives of how to paint non-represenational them, and makes an anthology, that transitions b/w extreme comfort to jarring discord. The one at Sellnik, which is not on their website, does the same thing, but intsead of a collection of disparte elements, was 6 stripes in colours that were both clear and muddy, muted and bright, natural and fake, almost a dilaectic (a less sucessful one from the mid 70s had a swampy mudgreen ground with three bright swatches of colour, which indicates that the high risk/high reward compoenet of this kind of work)

i got the name of the gallery wrong it was Miriam Shiell, i should fact check these things
- anthony (guest) 12-02-2010 9:35 am

http://www.miriamshiell.com/art.asp?Stock_Id=6370

this is one like it
- anthony (guest) 12-02-2010 9:37 am

Dennis Reid's teleological great-genius narratives on Canadian painting as-driven-by-isms are so traditional and cute that sometimes you just gotta indulge. Here's some biographical anecdote on Bush from A Concise History of Canadian Painting.

1945 - "Bush was then working in the Group of Seven landscape tradition, with strong elements of the 'regionalist' style that had been popular in the United States and with some Canadians during the thirties." (p.254)

1949 - "Everyone remarked on the dramatic change in the work he exhibited then. No longer based on landscape field-sketches...these new paintings seemed to be deeply felt allegories that touched upon spiritual matters." (p.254)

1952 - "By then he was stressing simple, expressive shapes in his painting. The Old Tree (AGO), exhibited in a one-man show at the Roberts Gallery in 1952 is made up of stylized, angular forms derived from Cubism, clearly modelled in space. At the same time, Bush was discovering an interest in the kind of abstract art that had developed out of Surrealism — some of his gallery work even suggested dream imagery. The first time he met Jock Macdonald (soon after Macdonald's arrival in Toronto) he was impressed with the westerner's ideas. 'He believed strongly in intuition; painting how you feel,' is how Bush later put it. He himself had recently been inspired by the example of Borduas, and had privately begun to experiment with automatic composition." (p.255)

1957 - Re: Greenberg in Toronto - "Jack Bush is the other member of Painters Eleven who was demonstrably affected by Greenberg's visit. Looking at paintings like Reflection, Greenberg was apparently much more critical of Bush's accomplishments than of Macdonald's. He immediately questioned the Abstract-Expressionist mannerisms; he called the facile brush effects 'hot licks.' Bush considered the use of such hard-learned devices an accomplishment, and this criticism totally destroyed the confidence he had built in his work over the past years. Greenberg did have suggestions, though. He believed that Bush possessed real promise, and in some watercolours in particular — likely similar to the beautifully constructed and sensitively coloured Theme Variation No.2 (AGO) of 1955 — he found a simplicity that allowed the most essential characteristics of Bush's sensibility to shine through. Greenberg suggested that Bush strive to achieve a similar quality in his oils. He also invited Bush to call on him when he next visited New York."

"Bush decided to try a couple of canvases that were simple in composition and straightforward in handling. They turned out so simple and unembellished that he was hesitant to consider them complete. He turned them to the wall and went back to his Abstract-Expressionism style. But he kept turning them around, beginning to feel that they were indeed more 'full' as paintings, and they began to influence his exhibited work." (p.266)

1958 - By January 1958, when he held a one-man show at the new Park Gallery — his first since that initial visit to New York six years before — a very distinct change was evident. Painting with Red* (RCML) of 1957 was in that show. Its simple structure is largely responsible for the picture's compelling interest. The forms, which had formerly been almost facile, now have a moving awkwardness, and the colour — limited to mustard-brown, brown, red, grey, and white — is unaffectedly direct. Bush had achieved a profoundly human statement with simple, uncontrived means." (p.266) * I can't find Painting with Red online, but judging from the black and white illustration in the book, it looks a bit similar in style to this one.

He really did take a lot of risks with his use of colours, unlike anything you see from others (Montreal/Western Canada/NY) exploring similar painting methodologies at the time. Sometimes I think it's the really clumsy colour combinations that are the most successful. I'm not sure why, but they seem to negate the limitations (in process and product) which 50 years later tend to seem so obvious.

Some endearing trivia: Jack's son, Terry Bush, wrote the theme song for "The Littlest Hobo."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=banXT6azA-4

"Maybe tomorrow I'll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow I'll just keep moving on."
- Roberto (guest) 12-02-2010 8:23 pm

There's a Painters Eleven show on here at Museum London. I've been ignoring it, but I guess I'll go have a look. Thanks, Antony!
- M.Jean 12-03-2010 1:45 pm

Kazuo Nakamura!



- sally mckay 12-03-2010 7:38 pm