Page 52 - Studio International - July August 1974

D. W. Bolduc
Poet Smokes 197 4
Acrylic on canvas, 78 x 66 in.
Photo: Peter MacCallum

Modernist conventions makes Graham more format. And for those who were looking, these
stylistically interesting a painter than other pictures contained some of the most beautifully
Canadian regionalists such as Dorothy Knowles, sustained and subtle brushing to be seen
though I do not mean to imply that Knowles is anywhere. They had the kind of intelligence of
inferior in quality. The regional bias of Motherwell that Bolduc has shown for Olitski.
Graham's work explicitates Toronto's But this synthesis seems to have proved too
unexpected position as a meeting point of style encompassing to let Solomon continue with the
in North America. characteristic armature he had been developing
The extent to which this situation is reflected through the earlier pictures, because in the past
in younger painters with ambitions toward year brushed shapes different in hue from the
major art is best seen right now in David ground colour have reappeared.
Bolduc's work. His development as a colourist Thus his problem is much like that of
looks like a textbook example of the problems Bolduc's, but approached from the opposite
that face the younger North American painter way. He begins with the drawing and seeks to
today. I think particularly of the work since his introduce colour variety, and in so doing arrives
last exhibition, which managed to clearly back at the problem of how to successfully
polarize the problem of getting a variety of compose with colour in a way that is not so
hues into the picture without separating them planar as to lead him into the stylistic obstacle
from the drawing. both Motherwell and Olitski, among others,
One set of pictures used shapes and characteristically as his colour sensibility has define. Also, Toronto has never fully possessed
occasionally a bottom division to play off organized itself. Yet this leads to the questions wall-size painting and this more than any other
blended ground colours, usually abutting rather of options, and that is what interests me here. factor qualifies the claims a writer makes for
than being underneath these elements. What In apparently discounting regional influences what he sees here. The problems of painting
was so good about these pictures was the number in his ambition toward major art, Bolduc has newly accustomed to being 'big-attack' are all
of different hues they successfully worked with, done in his way what Graham and Bush have too evident in Toronto even with Bolduc and
sometimes up to seven, within the context of an done in theirs, without there being any Solomon, and it affects the quality of their
original, characteristic drawing. One left connotation of a 'school'. In fact, the similarity work. But the quality is nevertheless there. One
impressed by the potential range of Bolduc's is only a broad one of pattern. But it admires other painters in Toronto for directly
colour sense even though the format looked too demonstrates the peculiar position Toronto is in tackling these problems, but the quality is not
close to the scale of easel painting to give the and suggests I think that when aware of evident enough yet. You do not find the
colour room enough to develop. The other kind mainstream style, the modest tradition of successful picture that stays successful in these
of picture was organized in Olitski's style but regional painting one finds in Toronto opens a ambitious terms other than in Bolduc and
with fewer colours, usually four, and with less number of options to the younger painter that Solomon.
emphasis on linear drawing near the edge. As can be seen to potentially align themselves with In the above I have really just repeated the
often happens with derivation of this kind some the most difficult problems facing major art necessity in general of being yourself. Fichte
of these pictures were better than the more today, as Bush demonstrates. Moreover, the would have called it making yourself. My
original looking ones I just mentioned. Bolduc imperatives of Bolduc's painting, which, as I see suggestion is that right now in North America
fully exploited his gift for colour blending and it, is to develop a more characteristic vehicle for there are stylistic reasons to think that Toronto's
thus gained the decorative, planar unity of his colour would seem to be favoured by a position as a meeting place of regional and
colour and drawing. region whose artistic quality has traditionally modernist traditions makes it a peculiarly viable
For subsequent pictures, the lesson of resided in the markedly individual appeal of a place to paint and to look for painting. Though
polarizing his.options this way was learned at few of its artists. And this says something in writing about it hardly helps matters in this
the edges of the second group. I mean, when general for the development of painting in regard, the younger painter in Toronto feels
the colours were blended in the centre of the Toronto. Daniel Solomon's pictures show what perhaps less pressured into not being himself
picture accidents and overlappings occurred at I mean. and yet retains an openness to traditions that
the edges that threw out the careful colour Born in the United States, Solomon has allows him to intelligently make his art what he
balance of the centre. Therefore, in both types worked seriously only in Toronto. Until about wants it to be. x
of picture Bolduc realized the need for two years ago his pictures were using mainly W. NEIL MARSHALL
separating the colour interaction in all parts. irregularly poured or stained shapes with a
And this is what the most successful recent ground colour either underneath or abutting 1 To name one of Clement Greenberg's many
paintings do. Blended colour is seen as blended, them. The success of these pictures and the accomplishments, especially The John Power Lecture,
`Avant-garde Attitudes', in this context.
the drawn passages are allowed to freely effect possible directions they suggested made 2 Principles of Art History, Dover, p. 37.
these areas precisely, and a broader range of Solomon's new geometric formats of last year Jules Olitski, Boston Museum catalogue, 1973, p. I.
hues can be introduced. look like more of a departure than they really 4 The difficulty of defining this quality should make
me cautious in referring to it, but to my mind it
This led Bolduc to a more defined level of the were. The poured and stained drawing as well as flavours Bush's work in much the same way as
problems today's colourist faces. Perhaps it is the ground painting had all in fact been brought English design, or English tastefulness flavours
Caro's sculpture. However, just about no one would
enough to say that the drawing has yet to together within the brushwork, the understand Canadian taste in general, in the sense I
organize itself more characteristically, as monochrome armature, of the new geometric mean here, outside Canada.
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