“The painted canvas was an arena in which the abstract expressionist artist acted, and Coughtry had isolated the solitary human figure directly in the centre of that arena, the force of his painting derives from a personal vision of the world.” ~ Barrie Hale, Graham Coughtry Retrospective, 1976
Graham Coughtry Artwork Currently for Sale
Graham Coughtry
Graham Coughtry was born in 1931, in St. Lambert Quebec. He studied at the School of Art and Design at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1948-1949. He continued his studies at the Ontario College of Art from 1949-1953.
The relationship of two figures had been one of the most persistent subjects of Graham Coughtry’s artistic career. These studies are not only charged with emotion, but also monumental in form. Coughtry was considered a gifted natural painter who had a great sense of colour and was able to bring something truly unique to figurative painting.
Graham Coughtry exhibited throughout his career (1956-1990) at the Isaac’s Gallery in Toronto. His work had been included in group exhibitions across Canada, the United States and Europe. Some of the exhibitions include the Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris (1978), Toronto Painting 1953-1965, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (1972), the University of Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, New York (1963), Contemporary Art of the Americas and Spain, Madrid (1963), the Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York (1962, 1971), New Acquisitions, the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1961), the Venice Biennale (1960), the San Paolo International Biennial (1959), the Guggenheim International, New York (1958, 1965), the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (1956, 1959), Commonwealth Exhibition, London, England (1962). Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia (1969), the Windsor Art Gallery (1972), the Mackenzie Art Gallery(1976), Modern Painting in Canada, the Edmonton Art Gallery (1978), Face To Face – The Figurative, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa (1984), Contact-Coughtry Works on Paper, The Art Gallery of Ontario, 1984
Graham Coughtry’s work is represented in many public and private collections in North America, including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo, The Detroit Institute of Art, and several other public institutions across Canada.
Credits
Jerrold Morris, 20th Century Canadian Drawings, The Gallery Stratford, 1979, pg. 59.
Donnalu Wigmore-editor, Isaacs Seen, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto, 2005, pg. 41