Painters Eleven (also known as Painters 11 or P11) was a group of

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...

ists active in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

between 1953 and 1960. They are associated with the

Abstract Expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

movement.

History

Since the 1920s, artists in

English Canada Canada comprises that part of the population within Canada, whether of British origin or otherwise, that speaks English. The term ''English Canada'' can also be used for one of the following: #Describing all the provinces of Canada that ...

had been heavily influenced by the landscape painting of the Group of Seven, and the Canadian Group of Painters. The Canadian public often regarded modernist movements such as

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

and

Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

as bizarre and subversive. The acquisition of modernist paintings, even

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

works, by public galleries was invariably a source of controversy. In

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Paul-Émile Borduas and

Jean-Paul Riopelle Jean-Paul Riopelle, (October 7, 1923 – March 12, 2002) was a Canadian painter and sculptor from Quebec. He had one of the longest and most important international careers of the sixteen signatories of the ''Refus Global'', the 1948 manif ...

spearheaded the modernist collective known as Les Automatistes, as early as 1941. However, their artistic influence was not quickly felt in English Canada, or indeed much beyond

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. In 1953, Toronto artists

Oscar Cahén Oscar Cahén (sometimes spelled Oscar Cahen) (February 8, 1916 – November 26, 1956) was a Canadian painter and illustrator. Cahén is best known as a member of Painters Eleven, a group of abstract artists active in Toronto from 1953-1960, ...

Walter Yarwood Walter Yarwood (September 19, 1917 – December 22, 1996) was a Canadian abstract painter and a founding member of Painters Eleven. Yarwood became known for his painting beginning in the 1950s. During the 1960s he completed a number of public sc ...

, and

Harold Town Harold Barling Town, (June 13, 1924 – December 27, 1990) was a Canadian abstract painter. He is best known as a member of Painters Eleven a group of abstract artists active in Toronto from 1954-1960. Town coined the name of the ...

discussed the possibility of mounting a group show of abstract paintings to strengthen public appreciation of the contemporary art form. A few weeks later, artist

William Ronald William Ronald Smith (August 13, 1926 – February 9, 1998), known professionally as William Ronald, was an important Canadian painter, best known as the founder of the influential Canadian abstract art group Painters Eleven in 1953 and for h ...

persuaded the Simpson’s department store in Toronto to display some abstract paintings alongside their modern furniture. During a publicity photo shoot for the Simpson's exhibition, entitled ''Abstracts at Home'', Cahén proposed the group show idea, and a subsequent meeting at Alexandra Luke's cottage in Oshawa led to the formation of Painters Eleven.

Formation

In 1953, eleven abstract painters from

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

—

Jack Bush John Hamilton Bush (March 20, 1909 – January 24, 1977) was a Canadian abstract painter. A member of Painters Eleven, his paintings are associated with the Color Field movement and Post-painterly Abstraction. Inspired by Henri Ma ...

Hortense Gordon Hortense Mattice Gordon (24 November 1886 – 6 November 1961), born Hortense Crompton Mattice, was a Canadian artist who worked abstractly in later life and became a member of Painters Eleven. Life and early work Born in Hamilton, Ontario, ...

Tom Hodgson Thomas Hodgson (June 5, 1924 – February 27, 2006) was a Canadian sprint canoer who competed in the 1950s, and also one of the acclaimed Canadian artists known as Painters Eleven. Competing in two Summer Olympics, he earned his best finish o ...

, Alexandra Luke, Jock Macdonald,

Ray Mead Ray Mead (1921–1998) was a Canadian abstract expressionist painter and a member of the artists group known as Painters Eleven. In his work, he often used a high horizon line as a structural element. Early life and career Born in Watford, Uni ...

Kazuo Nakamura Kazuo Nakamura was a Japanese-Canadian painter and sculptor (born Vancouver October 13, 1926; died Toronto April 9, 2002) and a founding member of the Toronto-based Painters Eleven group in the 1950s. Among the first major Japanese Canadian arti ...

and

— dubbed themselves Painters Eleven and held their first exhibition at Roberts Gallery in Toronto in 1954. The exhibition, arranged by Jack Bush, was the first major commercial exhibition of abstract expressionist art in Toronto. Unlike the Group of Seven whose members' work evolved along parallel lines, Painters Eleven did not share a common artistic vision as a group apart from a commitment to abstraction. This was reflected in the diversity of the group's members. Decades separated the youngest from the eldest, and before they sold their paintings they made their living as freelance commercial artists or worked in advertising and as art teachers. Two had studied at summer schools conducted by the American abstract expressionist

Hans Hofmann Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstrac ...

and

"sat in" on his classes, while others were graduates of the Ontario College of Art, and still others were self-taught. Within the group itself, the artistic center of gravity seems to have been

, a gifted European émigré who became well known as an illustrator for a number of national magazines. Stylistically speaking, Kazuo Nakamura's abstract works were far more subdued than those of his colleagues, and he also created figurative paintings. In Canada's conservative art world, their first exhibition was met with confusion and disdain, typical of new art movements throughout history. By their third exhibition, in 1957, they had established abstract expressionism in Canada. Painters Eleven attained U.S. exposure with a successful exhibition 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 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and were praised by the influential critic Clement Greenberg on a visit he paid to the group in Toronto in 1957. In the Canadian press, the group's most ardent supporters were art critic Robert Fulford and rt writerPearl McCarthy of the Globe and Mail. Eventually, the group's numbers were reduced by death and defection (Cahén was killed in a car accident in 1956, Ronald resigned in 1957) and the group formally disbanded in 1960.

Influence

Painters Eleven are credited with making English Canada's art-buying public more accustomed to abstract expressionist painting. Their influence on the next generation of Canadian artists was immense, and their art is now a prominent feature in public galleries and corporate and private collections throughout Canada and in many international collections. The largest collection of their works can be found at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario. Some of the group's members, notably

and

, went on to greater success in the 1960s and 1970s. Jack Bush was given a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1976, Harold Town in 1986 and

in 2004. Works by the group's members are now fetching higher prices at Canadian fine art auctions. The last surviving member of the group,

, a former Olympic canoeist and a dedicated abstract expressionist, died in 2006.

Selected group exhibitions

* 2010:

Museum London Museum London is an art and history museum located in London, Ontario, Canada. It is located near the forks of the Thames River. It started its operations in 1940 with London Public Library and amalgamated with London Regional Art Gallery and Lon ...

, London, Ont. * 2010: Moore Gallery, Toronto, Ont. * 2009: (Painters Eleven exhibition with works in animation) Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto * 2007: Thielsen Gallery, London, Ont. * 2003: Thielsen Gallery, London, Ont. * 1999: Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto * 1994 and 1995: Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ont. * 1984: Cambridge Art Gallery and Library, Cambridge, Ont. * 1979: Rodman Hall, St. Catharines, Ont. * 1978: The Gallery, Stratford, Ont. * 1976: Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, Ont. * 1975: Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery, Owen Sound, Ont. * 1971: Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ont. * 1960: Stable Gallery, Montreal (Cahen and Ronald absent) * 1959: National Gallery of Canada, touring, 7 venues (Ronald absent) * 1958: École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal * 1957: Park Gallery, Toronto * 1956: Riverside Museum, New York (with the American Abstract Artists) * 1955: Roberts Gallery, Toronto * 1954: Roberts Gallery, Toronto

Works

File:Toronto Walter Yarwood Cedars 01.jpg,

's Cedars.

References

Bibliography

*Robert Belton, ''The Theatre of the Self: The Life and Art of William Ronald'' (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1999). *Graham Broad, "Painters Eleven: the Shock of the New" in ''The Beaver'', February–March 2003, 20-26. *Grove, Jaleen.
Oscar Cahén: Life & Work
'' Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2015. *Hatch, John G.
Kazuo Nakamura: Life & Work
'. Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2021. *Denise Leclerc, ''The Crisis of Abstraction in Canada'' (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1992). * *Iris Nowell, '' Painters Eleven: The Wild Ones of Canadian Art '' (Douglas & McIntyre) Sept. 2010 *Dennis Reid, ''A Concise History of Canadian Painting'' (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1973).

External links

Robert McLaughlin Gallery

Painters Eleven
{{Authority control Canadian artist groups and collectives Abstract expressionist artists Modern painters