Borduas, Kurelek among postwar Canadian artists to headline auctions

The Canadian Press</span>
Published Tuesday, May 29, 2018 8:07AM EDT
Last Updated Tuesday, May 29, 2018 8:08AM EDT

Two works by Canadian postwar artists are among the highlights at auctions being held in Toronto this week.

The president of Consignor Canadian Fine Art says a 1972 painting by William Kurelek will hit the auction block Tuesday with an estimated value of $150,000 and $200,000.

Rob Cowley says the "Hot Day in Kensington Market" is one of 21 works in Kurelek's "Toronto" series depicting life in the city where the Alberta-born artist found commercial success and raised a family.

Quebec-born abstractionist Paul-Emile Borduas will headline the Heffel spring sale Wednesday with the 1956 "Figures schematiques."

The auction house says the painting could fetch between $3 million and $5 million, challenging Borduas's best price at auction, which was a canvas sold for $737,500 in 2015.

Auction house vice-president Robert Heffel says at roughly 1.3 metres by 2 metres, the canvas is the largest of Borduas's black-and-white paintings in private hands.

"Borduas was one of Canada's most important postwar contemporary painters," Heffel says. "(The painting is) a culmination of his career."

The Heffel auction will also feature eight works by the Group of Seven's Lawren Harris, a portrait by Emily Carr and a Tom Thomson painting that was recently recovered from an Edmonton grandmother's basement.

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