22 x 26.25 in (55.9 x 66.7 cm) including frame
Celebrated as a singular multidisciplinary figure in twentieth-century Canadian contemporary art, Charles Gagnon developed a contemplative aesthetic spanning painting, photography, film, and sound. While Gagnon would achieve national acclaim throughout the 1960s and 1970s for his large-scale, atmospheric field paintings and structural "window" series, his formative artistic years took shape during the mid-1950s, when he moved to New York City to study graphic design and painting at the Parsons School of Design and the Art Students League. The dynamic environment of the New York School, emerging abstract developments, and the rhythm of the city's jazz scene provided a pivotal backdrop for the young artist, making early works from this formative decade exceptionally rare.
The reverse stretcher bears the manufacturer’s stamp of the U.S. Art Canvas Co., New York, N.Y., offering a compelling physical clue linking the canvas to Gagnon’s time in New York. In Mutates are Closer, Gagnon works in a muted palette of warm terracotta, ochres, purples, and sage green, building up a textured surface that balances open field space with graphic line work. Across the lower section, delicate incised and painted linear motifs evoke architectural scaffolding, antennae, and geometric structures, balanced on the right by upright colour blocks and spiraling wire-like shapes. Suspended above, an oval aperture reveals vibrant vertical stripes of red and orange framed by a soft halo, while an isolated cluster of staccato markings to the upper left introduces an enigmatic, rhythmic counterpoint.
The painting carries an intimate personal history, having been acquired directly from Gagnon by his friend R. Bruce McFarlane who hung around with the artist during the 1950s and 60s. Moving in shared cultural circles in Montreal, the two bonded over modern art and a mutual enthusiasm for jazz, with McFarlane frequently driving down from Montreal to New York on weekends to take in clubs and visit his fellow expatriate. The canvas remained in McFarlane’s collection for over six decades, moving with him through his eventual relocation to Manitoba before passing by descent to his daughter in 2019. Kept in private hands since its creation, Mutates are Closer offers an uncommon look into Gagnon’s visual language during a critical, transitional moment in his early development.
The Artist
R. Bruce McFarlane, Montreal; acquired from the artist direct
By descent to present private collection, Manitoba
Charles Gagnon: The Colour of Time, The Sound of Space, p. 118, for a similar work illustrated.
Charles Gagnon
Charles Gagnon was born on May 23, 1934, in Montreal, Quebec. He received his early education in Montreal, attending the Collège Notre-Dame and the Collège Sainte-Marie. Between 1955 and 1960, he lived in New York City, where he studied interior design at the Parsons School of Design and later enrolled at the New York School of Interior Design. Concurrently, he took evening classes in painting at the Art Students League of New York and audited courses at the New School for Social Research. During this five-year stay in New York, Gagnon developed an interest in photography alongside his painting practice and worked on early experimental films.
Returning to Montreal in 1960, Gagnon established an active studio practice encompassing painting, photography, film, and mixed-media box constructions. In 1967, he received a commission to produce a photographic and audio installation titled "The Christian Pavilion" for Expo 67 in Montreal. Over the course of the 1960s and 1970s, his work was acquired by several major public collections, and in 1975, he joined the faculty at the University of Ottawa, teaching photography and multimedia arts in the Department of Visual Arts until his retirement in 1996.
Throughout his career, Gagnon was the subject of significant institutional surveys. In 1978, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts organized a comprehensive retrospective of his work, which subsequently traveled to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. His cross-disciplinary approach made him a regular participant in group surveys of contemporary Canadian art presented at public institutions both nationally and abroad, including exhibitions organized by the Centre Culturel Canadien in Paris.
In recognition of his contributions to Canadian visual arts, Gagnon received several major honours. He was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) and was awarded the Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas by the Government of Quebec in 1995. In 2002, he received the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. His works are held in the permanent collections of public institutions across Canada, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Gagnon died in Montreal on April 16, 2003.
Major Fall Fine Art Auction
November 12 - December 3, 2026
661 Wall St, Winnipeg MB
(204) 255-5690
mayberryfineart.com
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