Watershed Magazine has partnered with two of our region’s most valuable cultural assets – The John M. Parrott Gallery in Belleville and the Art Gallery of Northumberland (AGN) in Cobourg – to highlight select works from their permanent collections.
YVES GAUCHER WAS ONE OF CANADA’S FOREMOST ABSTRACT PAINTERS. He began his career as an accomplished printmaker and in 1964, turned to painting.
Signals in Silences is from a group of paintings referred to as the Signals/ Silences series executed in 1965/1966. The use of contemplative colours with linear, gentle movements is guided by the horizontal lines floating about the painting. Gaucher was exploring mathematical relationships, rhythms and space which eventually led to this series of quiet monochromatic minimal works. It is around this time that Minimalism had marked the end of Modernism and art was now moving into a new era of Postmodernism. Gaucher continued to develop his work and interest in mathematical art and contemplation of the diagonal line.
The Art Gallery of Northumberland acquired Signals in Silences through the Centennial Purchase Fund in 1969. It is part of the AGN’s impressive permanent collection of over 1,000 works.
