Provenance

Collection M. et Mme Guy Boisvert, Westmount

Les Galeries Place Royale, Montréal

Collection Dr. Roland Marin, Westmount

Galerie Camille Hébert, Montréal

Private Collection, Laurentides

Rita Letendre’s black and white paintings from the early 1960s represent one of the most powerful and transitional periods of her career. Influenced by the gestural energy of New York Abstract Expressionism—particularly the stark compositions of Franz Kline—Letendre developed dramatic abstractions defined by sweeping black forms, sharp contrasts, and heavily textured surfaces. These works combined the spontaneity of Automatism with a new structural intensity, conveying movement, tension, and emotional force through a restrained palette. Rooted in both Zen philosophy and intuitive mark-making, the paintings from this period established the expressive visual language that would ultimately lead to her celebrated hard-edge abstractions later in the decade.