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Luxury travel blog » Art » William Perehudoff paintings of the 80s

William Perehudoff paintings of the 80s

April 22, 2010 by Carol Perehudoff 16 Comments

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This essay is about William Perehudoff’s paintings from the 80s

My father, artist William Perehudoff, now in long term care, unable to walk and not doing well health-wise, still rocks when it comes to his art.  A painter with a career spanning decades, he devoted more time and thought to the art of composition and colour than anyone will ever know. I can still see him, sitting in his chair in his studio, studying a book on Matisse as if it held the key to the Holy Grail – and for him, in a way, it did.

William Perehudoff paperwork with red and blue

Paperwork 80s

 

When a  museum recently wanted to know more about his work from the 80s – and a few specific paintings in particular – it made me re-look at this pivotal time in his career. So here’s the essay I wrote. Read it and tell me I’ll never be an art writer …. but I’ll continue to combine art and travel if I can.

William Perehudoff – Placing the 80s Work in Context

William Perehudoff 80s paperwork with grey and orange

Paperwork 80s

 

By Carol Perehudoff

William Perehudoff is one of Canada’s foremost modernist painters. His career has spanned decades and his work is found in numerous public collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Montreal Museum of Fine Art and the Museum of Civilization.

Influences

Known primarily as a colourist, Perehudoff was born in 1918 to Doukhobor parents. He grew up near Langham, Saskatchewan, and his representation of space has always been influenced by the wide expanse of the prairies. There have been other influences. His interest in Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera took him to the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center to study with the eminent French muralist, Jean Charlot. Charlot encouraged Perehudoff to go to New York where he studied with Amédée Ozenfant, one of the co-founders, along with Le Corbusier, of Purism, an offshoot of Cubism with the decorative elements stripped away.

Emma Lake

In the late fifties, Perehudoff began attending the Emma Lake Artists’ Workshops in northern Saskatchewan. This brought him into contact with international artists and critics like Color Field painters Kenneth Noland and Jules Olitski, and perhaps most importantly, the New York art critic Clement Greenberg, who was supportive of Perehudoff’s direction toward pure abstraction.

Branching out

After the 60s, in which Perehudoff was mainly known for his large-scale works using circles and rectangular blocks of colour on raw canvas, and the 70s, when he became known for thin stripes on stained backgrounds, my father branched out. At this time, feeling that the 70s work was fully realized, Greenberg encouraged him to explore new avenues.

Perehudoff 80s abstract acrylic artwork known as a halo painting

Thin acrylic on canvas

 

Texture

Just at this time, Perehudoff was becoming interested in texture, using thick acrylic gel to create organic shapes that rise off the flat surface of the canvas. The coloured shapes, similar in size and topology to the hard-edged rectangles of the 60s, are nonetheless very different because they are completely gestural. These gel works have an immediacy about them because there is no rethinking the placement – the gel is thick, the colour pure and once on, it cannot be removed or rethought. With only one chance to get it right this gel series, which  Perehudoff worked on throughout the early 80s, challenged him to incorporate a new confidence into his brushwork. The end result is a calligraphy-like quickness and liveliness previously unseen.

The paperworks at the top of this post are  excellent examples of this series. Thick gel on raw paper backgrounds, they allow a play of colour and texture together which, in some cases, becomes quite sculptural. It was an important time in Perehudoff’s artistic career, a wide exploration between the flat more rigid geometric forms of the 60s and stripes of the 70s, and his later 90’s work which incorporates both stripes and rectangles.

Organic shapes

The canvas below shows the next stage in Perehudoff’s career, yet another new mode of working with colour. Toward the mid to late 80s, Perehudoff pares out the thick gel, but retains the more organic or biological shapes of colour that show this immediate, rather than static, brushwork. Now the background comes more into play. The thin stains of diaphanous colour loosely echo the square of the canvas to contain the central colour forms. This is where Perehudoff’s mastery of composition comes into play. The central forms neither simply recede through this window-like opening, nor extend out, but hover, creating a vibration between back and forwards, bringing a soft vitality to the painting.

William Perehudoff halo painting 80s with yellow and grey

Organic shapes of the 80s

 

In the example above, the background stain becomes a diamond and the watercolour-like thinness of the layered aqua stain just inside the diamond adds to this vibrating effect, acting as an intermediary linking the central forms with the luminous purple stain of the perimeter background colour.

Windows

This ‘window’ series was far more prevalent that many people realize, preoccupying Perehudoff for a number of years as he explored soft colours, spatial perception and the dialogue between depth and composition, an important step in an evolution of styles that reveals a lasting preoccupation with colour harmonies and form.

 

 

Background

A recipient of the Order of Canada, the Saskatchewan Order of Merit and a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art, William Perehudoff has exhibited widely in Canada, the US and Europe, including a widely-publicized exhibition at Canada House in London, UK, and in The Shape of Colour exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

 

Update: William Perehudoff Obituary

Filed Under: Art Tagged With: William Perehudoff

About Carol Perehudoff

A former freelance travel columnist for the Toronto Star, Carol has won more than 20 writing and blogging awards and honours. A spa and luxury travel expert, she's written for top travel publications around the globe.

Comments

  1. wanderingcarol says

    June 19, 2012 at 10:10 pm

    Hm. 1975 was a bit before my time. Was she a ballerina? Might have been my sister, Catherine.

  2. arni fullerton says

    December 22, 2011 at 6:09 am

    I have a vague but happy memory of your Dad and Mom having worked with them in designing thier first ‘back yard studio’ in Saskatoon when I was a very young architectural apprentice in the late 1950’s +..as it was my first official private commission I am now wishing I had kept some evidence of it for a blog that I am putting together now in my first year of (involuntary) retirement after a long carrear that has taken me around the world…a picture of your parents then and of the studio would by much apraeciated to rekindle that experience?..sincerley Arni Fullerton

  3. catherine fowler says

    June 3, 2011 at 9:40 pm

    Hi to Tamara, I remember being in a room in Castlegar and everyone was either a Bill or a Dorothy Perehudoff. Tamara, you look like the daughter of our artist 2nd cousin Kelly .

  4. wanderingcarol says

    May 23, 2011 at 2:44 pm

    I just checked out your site Tamara, great music! Dad took the family to Castlegar once and yes, we seemed to be related to a whole lot of Perehudoffs. Thanks for writing.

  5. wanderingcarol says

    May 21, 2011 at 3:47 pm

    I’d prefer the afternoon tea buffet at the Hyatt but okay.

  6. brian kiers says

    May 21, 2011 at 12:26 am

    Is there any way you could meet me for dinner in Seoul at Hollywood or the Indian-food place? i can’t remember what it’s called, but you and i had dinner there the first time we met. It would mean the world to me. I will get funding from Tourism Korea Office or somewhere if you agree.

  7. Tamara Perehudoff says

    May 15, 2011 at 11:49 pm

    Hey Carol,

    My father, Alex Perehudoff , has a William Perehudoff painting in his office in Castlegar, I believe we are related?

    I am an artist as well, singer/ songwriter/ performing artist and I also paint for fun.

    Great to connect with the artistic blood line!

    Take good care and I hope to hear from you!

    Peace & Dreamz,
    Tamara Perehudoff a.k.a. Tamara Rhodes

  8. wanderingcarol says

    February 27, 2011 at 8:14 am

    Catherine is William’s daughter and William is the anglicized version of Vasili. Thanks for reading!

  9. Vera says

    February 26, 2011 at 7:47 pm

    Are Catherine Perehudoff and William related? If ‘yes’ how?
    Also, ‘William’ cannot be a Russian name. Was this his real name or is this an anglicized version of the Russian name? Anybody knows?

  10. Lynn says

    September 30, 2010 at 4:50 am

    Interesting and comprehensive article about W.P. After recently meeting your sister after many years, it was great to read more about and by your incredibly talanted family!

  11. Tim McKeague says

    August 3, 2010 at 5:59 am

    Incidentally, they also have your mother’s work hanging in the living room. Big fans of Prairie artists in general. I think my father’s going to send you a photo of the eggplant painting when he gets the chance.

  12. wanderingcarol says

    August 2, 2010 at 6:02 pm

    Hi Tim, Glad you remember the painting fondly. I’m sure my father’s aim was to capture the essence of an eggplant in space. LOL

  13. Tim says

    August 2, 2010 at 6:00 pm

    Hi Carol,
    Thanks for this post. I have very fond memories of hours spent staring at one of your father’s painting which stills hangs above a fireplace in my parent’s house. One of the streaks of paint reminds me of a massive eggplant in space.

    Thanks again,
    Tim

  14. Diana says

    May 14, 2010 at 5:54 pm

    Carol, so sorry to hear of your dad’s frailty – thank you for introducing me to his work… and your mum’s, and your sisters’, and of course yours – are you still keeping your hand in?

  15. Michele says

    April 23, 2010 at 11:53 am

    Really interesting article. Will a show of his 80’s work come to Toronto? I hope so. I love these works.

  16. Cathy Fowler says

    April 22, 2010 at 9:48 pm

    William Perehudoff is having an exhibition open April 24th at the Newzones Gallery in Calgary. Great article Carol!

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