Newzones is thrilled to announce an exhibition of work from renowned Canadian colour field painter, William Perehudoff (1918-2013)
Perehudoff is one of the most celebrated Canadian colour field painters of his generation. His acclaimed career spanned over six decades, setting a national precedence for contemporary painting.
William Perehudoff was born in Saskatchewan in 1918, and began his career in the early 1940s. Between 1948-1949, he studied with French artist Jean Chariot at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, and from 1949-1950, with Amédée Ozenfant at the Ozenfant School of Fine Arts in New York. Not surprisingly, with his connections to American Color Field and European abstract movements, Perehudoff’s paintings shifted and his focus turned to formalist abstraction. Consequently, his work has given rise to generations of artists working in the field of formalist abstraction and colour field painting.
William Perehudoff achieved great distinction through his exhibitions and awards. In 1994, he was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, followed by the prestigious Order of Canada in 1998. Furthermore, in 2003, he received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Regina, and in 2012 he was bestowed the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
A key point in Perehudoff’s career was in 1962, when he met Clement Greenberg. Greenberg was an influential New York art critic who was highly regarded for his promotion of the Abstract Expressionist movement. Perehudoff’s participated actively in the Emma Lake Artists’ Workshops, which is certainly considered to have been highly influential on his practice. Consequently, he became a workshop leader in 1988.
In 2010, a traveling retrospective was organized by the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (now Remai Modern), curated by esteemed New York art critic Karen Wilkin. “The Optimism of Colour: William Perehudoff, a retrospective” first opened at Mendel Art Gallery in October 2010. Then, the exhibition traveled to Kamloops Art Gallery, BC and Glenbow Museum, Calgary in 2011 and in 2012 it was on view at Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario and Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario.
William Perehudoff’s work has been collected world-wide and can be found in collections such as: the National Gallery of Canada, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, Remai Modern, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Glenbow Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery and National Gallery of Modern Arts (New Delhi, India) to name a few.
The exhibition is on view from November 28, 2024 - January 18, 2025