Harold Barling Town, (June 13, 1924 – December 27, 1990) was a Canadian abstract painter. He is best known as a member of

Painters Eleven Painters Eleven (also known as Painters 11 or P11) was a group of abstract artists active in Canada between 1953 and 1960. They are associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement. History Since the 1920s, artists in English Canada had been h ...

a group of abstract artists active in Toronto from 1954-1960. Town coined the name of the group, which was based simply on the number of artists that were present the first meeting.Fulford, "Introduction" He also worked as an illustrator, a profession he credited with imparting a sense of discipline that would last throughout his entire artistic career. His early illustrative appeared in magazines such as ''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian perspe ...

'' and ''Mayfair''.

Life and work

Harold Town was trained at Western Technical-Commercial School and

Ontario College of Art Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...

, both in Toronto. The

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

was an early source of inspiration, especially its East Asian prints and ceramics, and the Mesopotamian and Egyptian antiquities. His exposure to the diverse artistry of these works gave Town what he called a global horizon, a new outlook, which would influence his work as a commercial artist and inspire his first attempts at abstract art. His early work also reflected his interest in

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...

.Harold Town

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available fo ...

, accessed August 29, 2019 Town developed his own innovative collage technique, which was highly acclaimed His collages have been described by Gerta Moray i
Harold Town: Life & Work
as similar to his paintings in the way they resemble areas of drawing in ink or paint. He also juxtaposed contrasting or unexpected textures and fragments taken from everyday sources, that lead the viewer to unexpected viewing. Known as an unpredictable painter Town's work moved quickly from a dark expressionist style to abstraction which contrasted vivid colours.Fulford, "Introduction" Highly eclectic, Town’s work rigorously explored a wide range of contemporary and historical styles, anticipating postmodern practices. His pluralistic artistic method incorporated a variety of media and styles simultaneously, and assimilated complex artistic traditions, which he used to reflect his own personal experience. In the 1960s, Town developed a style of prints which he called Single Autographic Prints, a phrase he never explained. These

monotype Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The ...

prints In molecular biology, the PRINTS database is a collection of so-called "fingerprints": it provides both a detailed annotation resource for protein families, and a diagnostic tool for newly determined sequences. A fingerprint is a group of conserve ...

were colourful and delicate, winning Town awards in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

and

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, where the prints were acquired by the Solomon Guggenheim Museum and the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

Alfred Barr Alfred Hamilton Barr Jr. (January 28, 1902 – August 15, 1981) was an American art historian and the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. From that position, he was one of the most influential forces in the development of ...

, the director of Museum of Modern Art at the time, called Town one of the world's greatest printmakers. Roald Nasgaard describes these prints as being of great finesse and subtlety.Roald Nasgaard, ''Abstract Painting in Canada'', p.104 Described as a Canadian loyalist, Harold Town was unwavering in his commitment to proving that internationally important and innovative art could develop in Toronto. Through his early success and his insistence on maintaining his roots in Toronto, Town helped foster a new confidence and maturity in the Canadian art scene of the late 1950s.

Honours

In 1956, works by Town along with those of

Jack Shadbolt Jack Leonard Shadbolt, (February 4, 1909 November 22, 1998) was a Canadian painter. Early life Born in Shoeburyness, England, Shadbolt came to Canada with his parents in April 1911. He was raised in Victoria, British Columbia. He studied at t ...

and

Louis Archambault Louis Archambault (April 4, 1915 – January 27, 2003) was a Quebec sculptor and ceramicist, who was one of the members of the "new sculpture" movement in Canada that moved away from traditional methods towards abstraction. Career Born in M ...

represented Canada at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. In 1964, Town and

Elza Mayhew Elza Edith Mayhew (January 19, 1916 – January 11, 2004) was a Canadian sculptor who worked mainly in bronze. Life The daughter of Alice Bordman and George Lovitt, She was born Elza Edith Lovitt in Victoria, British Columbia. Mayhew rece ...

were chosen to represent Canada at the

. Town's work also represented Canada at the

São Paulo Art Biennial The São Paulo Art Biennial (Portuguese: ''Bienal de São Paulo'') was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennale (in existence since 1895), which serves as ...

in 1957 and 1961. Town was made an associate member of the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...

in 1958. He was recognized with the Biennale de São Paulo’s Arno Award in 1957. York University granted him an honorary doctorate in 1966. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1968. Town had

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...

exhibitions at the

Art Gallery of Windsor Art Windsor-Essex (AWE) (formerly known as the Art Gallery of Windsor) is a not-for-profit art institute in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Established in 1943, the gallery has a mandate as a public art space to show significant works of art by local ...

in 1975 and the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Beve ...

in 1986. The Harold Town Conservation Area in Peterborough ON is named after Town, who owned this property from the mid 1970s until the early 1990s; it was previously referred to as Old Orchard Farm. Town enjoyed this property as his personal retreat until his passing. On April 11, 1994, the property was donated to Otonabee Conservation by Town’s estate. The property was then named in his memory and was dedicated as a park for public purposes, as requested by the estate.

Painters Eleven

In the late 1940s Town met Walter Yarwood and others involved in avant-garde art in Toronto and although he was not included in the ''Abstracts at Home'' exhibition held in 1953 at the Robert Simpson Company, Toronto, he joined Painters Eleven when the group was formed later that year. In Canada's conservative art world their early exhibitions were met with disdain. Nevertheless, Painters Eleven attracted exposure in the United States with a successful exhibition, ''Twentieth Annual Exhibition of American Abstract Artists with 'Painters Eleven' of Canada'' in 1956, with the

American Abstract Artists American Abstract Artists (AAA) was formed in 1936 in New York City, to promote and foster public understanding of abstract art. American Abstract Artists exhibitions, publications, and lectures helped to establish the organization as a major fo ...

at the

Riverside Museum The Riverside Museum (formerly known as the Glasgow Museum of Transport) is a museum in Glasgow, housed in a building at Pointhouse Quay in the Glasgow Harbour regeneration district of Glasgow, Scotland. The building opened in June 2011, winnin ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

,Roald Nasgaard, ''Abstract Painting in Canada'', p.96 and were praised by the influential critic

Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg () (January 16, 1909 – May 7, 1994), occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formal ...

on a visit he paid to Toronto in 1957.Roald Nasgaard, ''Abstract Painting in Canada'', p.91 In the Canadian press, the group's most ardent supporters were art critic Robert Fulford and Pearl McCarthy, art critic of the Globe and Mail. The group formally disbanded in 1960.

Notes

External links

CBC Radio interview with Harold TownHarold Town
at The Canadian Encyclopedia
Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University
- Archival photographs of Harold Town from the Toronto Telegram fonds.
Official Harold Town websiteHarold Town fonds (R5740)
at

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is th ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Town, Harold 20th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters Canadian printmakers Canadian abstract artists Canadian illustrators Canadian collage artists 1924 births 1990 deaths Artists from Toronto Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Officers of the Order of Canada 20th-century printmakers Canadian contemporary artists 20th-century Canadian male artists

Life and work

Honours

Painters Eleven

Notes

Further reading

External links