Additional Images

Provenance:

Private Collection, Ireland

Note:

Gordon Rayner is a versatile artist who comes from a long line of painters and commercial artists. At 15 years of age, he became the apprentice of Jack Bush, a notable member of the Painters Eleven. Always open to new influences, Rayner is mostly known for his abstract compositions of cityscapes and landscapes of Muskoka, Ontario.

In the early 2000s, Rayner created a series of portraits depicting notorious historical figures.  He extensively  researched  the life of each subject and drew his inspiration from archival photographs, drawings and paintings. In Delacroix (2002), the artist captures the strong personality of the figure by using a colour-laden palette and by drawing frenetic, swirling masses around Delacroix’s head, just as if Rayner intended to illustrate the buzzing activity of the genius mind.

Throughout his career, Gordon Rayner taught in various institutions such as the New School of Art and the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, the Emily Carr College of Art in Vancouver and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. His work is collected by numerous private and public institutions, notably A.E. Lepage, Art Gallery of Windsor, Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada Council Art Bank, Concordia Art Gallery in Montreal, MOMA, National Gallery of Canada, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Vancouver Art Gallery.