Contraction for expansion

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This article was published 24/04/2024 (533 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A threshing-machine crew bringing in the fall harvest.

Sailors steering a York boat on Lake Winnipeg’s rough waters.

Depictions of the two scenes from Manitoba’s early years are among 14 works of art Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq will sell to build an endowment fund to purchase contemporary Canadian art.

The works, including Negrich Family Threshing Outfit by William Kurelek (1927-77), who grew up in Stonewall, and York Boat on Lake Winnipeg, a colour woodcut from 1930 by Winnipeg’s Walter J. Phillips (1884-1963), will be part of a Toronto art auction May 30.

“This is more about growing, updating, expanding the collection, ensuring we’re supporting young, new Manitoba, Canadian artists,” says Stephen Borys, WAG-Qaumajuq’s director and chief executive officer.

It will be the second time WAG-Qaumajuq has teamed up with the Cowley Abbott auction house to sell pieces from its permanent collection.

Last year, it sold four Andy Warhol silkscreen portraits of Queen Elizabeth for $780,000, the proceeds of which went to an endowment fund administered by the Winnipeg Foundation to purchase works from contemporary Indigenous artists.

Cowley Abbott estimates the 14 WAG-Qaumajuq works will raise between $472,000 and $684,000, although sale prices at auctions can vary with demand.

“Deaccessioning” is commonplace among art galleries and museums; Cowley Abbott has also partnered with the Art Gallery of Ontario in the past, as well as galleries in Hamilton and Windsor, on sales.

Museums and galleries have to adapt to the communities they serve, and that can mean using proceeds from selling art they hold to fill gaps in their collections, says Rob Cowley, a Cowley Abbott partner who will be the auctioneer on May 30.

Several Manitoba artists besides Kurelek and Phillips highlight the works WAG-Qaumajuq is putting on the auction block.

Two oil paintings by Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald (1890-1956), the Group of Seven artist from Winnipeg, represent a tiny fraction of the many paintings, prints and drawings WAG-Qaumajuq holds.

A still life by Bertram Brooker (1888-1955), an English-born Manitoban and polymath who worked for the Manitoba Free Press in the 1930s while gaining artistic inspiration from FitzGerald, is up for sale.

Charles Comfort (1900-94), whose vivid landscape Aura Lee will be sold, grew up in Winnipeg in the 1910s. He would later become a war artist following the Canadian Army during the Second World War, and director of the National Gallery of Canada from 1960-65.

Works by Winnipeg postwar artists Ivan Eyre (1935-2022) and Tony Tascona (1926-2006), both of whom have figured prominently in WAG-Qaumajuq exhibitions over the years, will also be auctioned.

“The WAG has the largest collection of works by Tony Tascona and we’ve probably exhibited more of his works than any other museum,” Borys says. “I think if Tony was here right now, he would be pleased that there is an opportunity to share his works with more collectors.”

The work commanding the highest price is expected to be Bare Trees in Snow by Toronto artist David Milne, which is estimated to sell for $150,000 to $250,000, and the Kurelek oil and graphite work, which Cowley Abbott believes will go for between $90,000 and $120,000.

Mayberry Fine Art has bought and sold many works by Kurelek and believes there is a demand, especially in Western Canada, for his scenes of the Prairies, of which Negrich Family Threshing Outfit is a classic example.

“There’s a lot of paintings here I could sell on a phone call to a client,” says Shaun Mayberry, a Canadian art specialist and partner with Mayberry Fine Art. “It was felt the auction was the best choice in terms of reaching the widest audience.”

Mayberry’s location at 212 McDermot Ave. will host a preview on May 1-4 of works Cowley Abbott will auction.

It will include several paintings to be auctioned that are not associated with WAG-Qaumajuq, including a large 1924 Lawren Harris canvas titled Brazeau Snowfield, Jasper Park, which Mayberry staff uncrated and showed off Tuesday morning. Cowley Abbott estimates it will sell for at least $2 million.

Harris (1885-1970), is a Group of Seven artist who has become a 21st-century darling of the art world, owing partly to a 2015 exhibition in Los Angeles curated by actor Steve Martin, a Harris devotee.

Cowley Abbott estimates the May 30 auction, which will include 135 works from Canadian and American artists, will sell for upwards of $10 million.

“We anticipate that there will be collectors in Winnipeg and throughout the province that will have an interest,” Cowley says.

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @AlanDSmall