Lot 84
JOE FAFARD
Provenance:
Charles Bronfman’s Claridge Collection, Montreal
Literature:
Nancy Tousley, Joe Fafard: The Bronze Years, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, 1997, page 51, cat. no. 22, for The Opening illustrated in colour.
Note:
Perhaps best known for his sculptures of cows, Joe Fafard has maintained a towering influence over the Canadian art world for over forty years. Born in Saskatchewan in 1942, where he still maintains a studio and foundry, Fafard has often said that his perceptions of the world have been shaped by his upbringing on a farm near the village of Sainte-Marthe, SK.
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s Fafard worked primarily in clay, creating ceramic figurines that depicted members of his family and community. The insight, humility, and humour of these clay sculptures brought him to prominence in Western Canada early in his career. By 1983, however, Fafard felt that he had reached the limits of the medium and needed a change to pursue new ideas.
The shift he was looking for came in 1984 when he was awarded with a commission from the Toronto Dominion Bank to create a public work for the public plaza on Wellington Street in downtown Toronto. The Pasture, his winning submission, was his first significant venture in bronze, and after this he took to the medium full time, even opening his own foundry in Pense, Saskatchewan.
The Opening, cast early in the life of Fafard’s foundry, was created in the midst of a series of portraits of famed artists, among them Cézanne, Renoir, and Van Gogh (c. 1984-1993). The Opening shows particular semblance to the portrait of a young Picasso, Standing Pablo, also completed in 1988. Holding pipes and posed with feet firmly planted, both figures look out from under their flat caps to make direct contact with the viewer. In the case of The Opening, the figure may also be perceived to be examining himself, as the frame can also be viewed as a mirror.
Sold to benefit Historica Canada.