Lot 121
GREGORY RICHARD CURNOE
Additional Images
Literature:
Dennis Reid and Matthew Teitelbaum (eds.), “Some Things I Learned from Greg Curnoe,” in Greg Curnoe: Life and Stuff, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2001, page 119.
Note:
“And since you know you cannot see yourself,
so well as by reflection, I, your glass,
will modestly discover to yourself,
that of yourself which you yet know not of.” – Act I, Scene II, Julius Caesar
Curnoe spent the majority of his life in London, Ontario but travelled to England on occasion. Using a warm, vibrant palette, Curnoe captures a Shakespearean actor in a style reminiscent of Matisse’s Fauvist portraits. “Curnoe’s art was about momentary experience, about pausing to look at something or someone,” and he tended to spontaneously create forms rather than employ a methodic rigour to his work. Alongside his collages and lettered works, Curnoe’s portraits were always autobiographical and marked important relationships that the artist made throughout his life.