Media fabric, collage, and acrylic on canvas board
Dated
2017
Size 24 x 24 in. / 61 x 61 cm.
Estimate $2,000 - $4,000
Notes
signed, titled and inscribed verso; unframed
Reference
lot includes exhibition catalogue How to Play a Winning Game Your Natural Way, published by the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, 2011
Provenance
proceeds going to the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge; donated by the artist; recent exhibition at the artist's gallery Norberg Hall will run from April 1 to May 7; see gallery website at norberghall.com
Biographical Information
William [Billy] J. McCarroll ~ [b.1937] Canadian
Billy McCarroll lives in Lethbridge, AB and maintains both a visual art and music practice. It is no surprise that he has found his way to John Cage’s 1969 book NOTATIONS. In McCarroll’s hands Cage’s ideas are newly discovered. In these works a rigid order is employed with his familiar use of the grid and yet loose experimental pops of colour and intricate patterns become by - chance arrangements. Black text on white paper surrounded by solid geometric shapes of intense chroma give way to small windows of what could be described as complete works within the whole of the larger canvas. Intuitive, lyrical and rhythmic it makes one wonder if there isn’t a McCarroll musical composition lurking in these paintings? McCarroll centres his paintings around procedural systems, endless layers of gesso and paint applied in an automatic fashion creating a silky ground dancing with text and colour. McCarroll compositions are masterful and his ability to express and experiment with text, colour and form invite the viewer to pause, take note, and question your observations.
A major exhibition How to Play A Winning Game Your Way was held at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in 1993 as well as Billy McCarroll: A Survey 1971-2011, Southern Alberta Art Gallery in 2012; see gallery website at norberghall.com
biography and another example in Survey Alberta 88, by A.MacKay, pg.37, Alberta College of Art, 1988; listed on Artists in Canada, a Union List of Artists' Files, by National Gallery of Canada Library et al, Canadian Heritage Information Network [CHIN] website