Jack Bush catalogue raisonne #1.199.1956.262

Provanance

The artist (1956-1974)

Park Gallery, Toronto

Estate of Jack Bush

Miriam Shiell Fine Art, Toronto, 2005

Newzones Contemporary Art Gallery, Calgary, 2005

Private collection, Calgary, 2013

Masters Gallery, Calgary, 2015

Private collection, Calgary

Masters Gallery, Calgary

Private collection, North Coast, BC (2015-)

Exhibitions

Jack Bush: New Paintings, Park Gallery, Toronto, 1958, no.28.

By the mid-1950s, Jack Bush took a decisive shift away from traditional landscape and illustrative painting toward abstraction, a transition catalyzed by his involvement with Painters Eleven—a Toronto-based group formed in 1953. By 1956, Bush was experimenting with expressive, gestural forms, influenced by his exposure to American Abstract Expressionism. His works from this period often featured vigorous brushwork, balancing spontaneity with structure. This decade laid the groundwork for his later Color Field style and marked his emergence as a dominant force in modern Canadian painting.

November #16 is one of an important series of twenty-five watercolours Bush painted in November and December 1956. It was these watercolours that critic Clement Greenberg saw and admired when he visited Toronto during the summer of 1957.