Description:

Jack Hamilton Bush, OSA, ARCA (1909-1977), Canadian
BLUE-GREEN THRUST, 1959 [STANNERS: 1.147.1959.353]

oil and black crayon on canvas
signed and dated "59" lower centre; titled and dated to gallery and exhibition labels verso
32 x 71.25 in — 81.3 x 181 cm

Estimate: $80,000—120,000 CAD

  • Provenance:

    Artist's studio, May 1959-1974
    Estate of the artist, 1975-2011
    Sotheby's Canada, Toronto, ON, 2 Jun 2010, lot 83
    Private Collection, Toronto, ON

  • Dimensions: 32 x 71.25 in — 81.3 x 181 cm
  • Artist Name: Jack Hamilton Bush, OSA, ARCA (1909-1977)
  • Exhibited:

    Jack Bush: Paintings 1959-1974, André Emmerich Gallery, New York, NY, 1978.
    Jack Bush: Paintings, Galerie Wentzel, Cologne, Germany, 1983.
    Jack Bush: Paintings 1959-1973, Newzones Gallery of Contemporary Art, Calgary, AB, 2004.

  • Literature: Jack Bush: Paintings 1959-1974 (New York: André Emmerich Gallery, 1978) unpaginated, (exhibition catalogue).
    Marc Mayer and Sarah Stanners, Jack Bush (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2014), 22, fig. 5 (col. illus.) (exhibition catalogue).
    Sarah Stanners, Jack Bush Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonné Vol. 2 (Toronto: David Mirvish Books in partnership with Coach House Press, 2024), 178-179, cat. no. 1.147.1959.353 (col. illus.).
  • Medium: oil and black crayon on canvas
  • Notes: Blue-Green Thrust, painted in May 1959, marks a shift in Jack Bush’s practice away from a short-lived exploration of American Abstract Impressionist ideas and toward a “stripped-down abstraction” that we see fully matured throughout the 1960s and beyond.[1] Bush met Clement Greenberg in 1957 when the famed art critic visited Toronto -- the beginning of a sustained professional mentorship and genuine friendship. Already by 1959 they were in full dialogue and Greenberg’s counsel becomes evident in Bush’s work at this time. Sarah Stanners writes:

    “…Bush took the advice he had received from Clement Greenberg when he painted this picture. In a letter dated 3 March 1959, which Bush transcribed in his diary, Greenberg had suggested that Bush should pursue more "openness" in his compositions and let the unprimed canvas act as paint. Bush did just this and only sized this canvas. He therefore allowed the raw colour of the canvas to show through and form the central thrusting shape.”[2]

    The earliest instance of what will come to be called the Thrust series, Blue-Green Thrust also demonstrates Bush’s interest in colour and structured composition. Bush went on to create over two dozen paintings from this series throughout the early 1960s and they represent his first “sustained concentration of a single abstract picture type with many variations.”[3]

    [1] Karen Wilkin, “Jack Bush: His Imagery” in Jack Bush, (New York: Hudson Hills Press), 161.
    [2] Sarah Stanners, Jack Bush Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonné Vol. 2 (Toronto: David Mirvish Books in partnership with Coach House Press, 2024), 179.
    [3] Marc Mayer, “A Double Life” in Marc Mayer and Sarah Stanners, Jack Bush (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2014), 22.
  • Condition: Good overall condition.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
CA$0 CA$199 CA$10
CA$200 CA$499 CA$20
CA$500 CA$999 CA$50
CA$1,000 CA$1,999 CA$100
CA$2,000 CA$4,999 CA$200
CA$5,000 CA$9,999 CA$500
CA$10,000 CA$19,999 CA$1,000
CA$20,000 CA$49,999 CA$2,000
CA$50,000 CA$99,999 CA$5,000
CA$100,000 CA$299,999 CA$10,000
CA$300,000 CA$999,999 CA$25,000
CA$1,000,000 CA$1,999,999 CA$50,000
CA$2,000,000 CA$2,999,999 CA$100,000
CA$3,000,000 CA$4,999,999 CA$200,000
CA$5,000,000 + CA$300,000