Harold Town

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Harold Barling Town (born June 13, 1924 in Toronto , Ontario , † December 27, 1990 in Peterborough , Ontario) was a Canadian painter and printmaker . He was an important representative of the contemporary artistic avant-garde and abstract painting of Canada.

life and work

Harold Town studied at the Western Technical School and from 1943 to 1945 at the Ontario College of Art & Design . In 1953 he co-founded the artist group " Painters Eleven ", which included ten other abstract painters from Ontario: Jack Bush , Oscar Cahén , Hortense Gordon , Tom Hodgson , Alexandra Luke , Jock Macdonald , Ray Mead , Kazuo Nakamura , William Ronald and Walter Yarwoodbelonged. The group was founded as a counter-movement against the conservative art scene in Canada, especially in Toronto, and existed until 1960.

Harold Town was the driving force behind the group, he shaped their style and wrote the forewords for the Painters Eleven exhibition catalogs . Town was, in addition to his painting, an important graphic artist who created many lithographs and worked as an illustrator of books and magazines.

After the dissolution of Painters Eleven , Town continued to be successful as an individual artist. Harold Town was not only active as an artist, but also as a critic and author of books and specialist publications. This made him an influential figure within Canada's art scene from the 1950s to the 1970s. Town's abstract painting received international attention in the late 1950s . His work has been shown at important international exhibitions. He was represented with a few works as a participant in documenta III 1964 in Kassel in the section " Aspects 1964 ". He was the first artist in Canada to use burned objects as part of his abstract works.

Literature and Sources

  • documenta III. International exhibition ; Catalog: Volume 1: Painting and Sculpture; Volume 2: Hand Drawings; Volume 3: Industrial Design, Graphics; Kassel / Cologne 1964

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Town, Harold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Town, Harold Barling (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian painter and printmaker
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Toronto , Canada
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1990
Place of death Peterborough , Ontario, Canada