William Perehudoff
AC-80-27
acrylic on canvas
signed, titled and dated 1980 on the reverse
55 x 49.5 in ( 139.7 x 125.7 cm )
Since the 1960s, Saskatchewan artist William Perehudoff has ranked among the central figures of abstract painting in Canada. Involvement in the famed Emma Lake Workshops brought Perehudoff into contact with influential modernists, including Kenneth Noland, Donald Judd and Anthony Caro. A restless innovator, Perehudoff maintained a prolific output in the 1980s, continuously experimenting with the wide range of potential qualities of acrylic paint. The use of gel mediums allowed him to layer thinned veils of colour with glossy, opaque layers of impasto. The flat plains and expansive skies of the Canadian prairies appear to have influenced Perehudoff’s sense of composition. "AC-80-27" features a visually compelling range of surfaces, from the soft, neutral underpainting to the delicate pinkish frosting, to the bursts of coloured forms which act as focal points for the viewer’s gaze. Closely associated with the Colour Field movement, Perehudoff’s bold compositions can be found in numerous public and private collections, including that of the National Gallery of Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
William Perehudoff was born in Langham, Saskatchewan and maintained a connection to this area throughout his life. In 1944, the Saskatoon Art Centre opened, and this provided Perehudoff with early and important access to art. Within a couple of years he was exhibiting regularly in group exhibitions such as the Saskatoon Exhibition and the Art Centre fall show. Throughout this phase of his development as an artist, he farmed in the summer and devoted himself to painting and his art education in the winter. Like many artists of the time, Perehudoff had been influenced by the motivations and methodologies of social realist artists such as Diego Rivera. Perehudoff took instruction from the influential French muralist Jean Charlot, as well as Amédé Ozenfant in New York, the French Purist and associate of Le Corbusier. Kenneth Noland, a very important colour field painter, was also a major influence to his work. Since the 1960s, Perehudoff was a central figure in Canadian abstraction. The effect of the flat plains and open skies that are so dramatically present throughout Saskatchewan seem to be detectable in his work. William Perehudoff received the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 1994 and an honorary doctorate from the University of Regina in 2003. He was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 1998.