Guido Molinari ( 1933-2004 )
Equilibrium/Équilibre
Acrylic on canvas
Signed and dated lower right “MOLINARI-59”
107 x 92 cm, 43 x 36 in.
Provenance :
Guy Molinari, Montreal
David Thomson, Toronto
Private Collection, Mississauga
Exhibited :
Guido Molinari, Une Rétrospective, Musée d’art Contemporain, Montreal, 19 May – 17 Sept. 1995, cat. #23.
Molinari and Mondrian: the spirit of destruction, Art Gallery of Hamilton, 19 Sept. – 31 Dec. 2002, cat. #12.
Molinari et la couleur, Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal, 10 Dec. 2008 -24 Jan. 2009.
Literature :
Guido Molinari, Une Rétrospective, exhibition catalogue, Musée d’art Contemporain, Montreal, 1995, p. 24 & 70.
Guido Molinari : quand le spectateur se fait créateur, Nathalie Leroux, Vie des Arts, vol. 39, #158, 1995, p. 36-39
colour ill. (inverted).
Molinari and Mondrian: the spirit of destruction, Art Gallery of Hamilton, 2002, p.10, pl. 4, colour ill.
Molinari et la couleur, Galerie Simon Blais, 2008, p. 30-31, colour ill.
Molinari, François-Marc Gagnon, Roald Nasgaard, Marc Seguin, et al., Molinari Foundation, Montreal 2018,
illustrated p. 49, 113, 289 & 311.
Bio: Guido Molinari (October 12, 1933 – February 21, 2004) known for his abstract paintings. Molinari was born in Montreal of Italian heritage with parents from Cune, Tuscany and Naples, Campania. Guido Molinari began painting at age 13, and his existentialist approach to art was formed during a bout with tuberculosis at age 16, during which he read Nietzsche, Sartre, Piaget, and Camus. He studied at the Ecole des beaux-arts de Montreal and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Guido Molinari practised abstraction in New York, inspired by Barnett Newman, and Jackson Pollock, then returned to Montreal where he produced some of the finest pieces of his career. He married Fernande Saint-Martin in 1958. He won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967, was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1971, and won the Prix Paul-Emile-Borduas in 1980.
His work is known for its focus on modular and contrasting colours, shapes, and lines. It is exhibited worldwide, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal, and the Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art in New York.
An avid art collector, his extensive private collection includes the work of Mondrian, Matisse, John Cage, Jasper Johns, and Quebec artists John Lyman, and Ozias Leduc.
Biography courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_Molinari