Colour, Form And Attitude

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Jack Bush, “Pink on Red (Thrust),” 1961, oil on canvas, 79" x 79.25" (photo by Kyle Juron, courtesy of Paul Kyle Gallery)

One of Canada's best-known and most beloved abstract painters, the late Jack Bush was born in 1909 and spent his youth in Toronto painting landscapes and figurative works, influenced by the famed Group of Seven. 

Following the Second World War, Bush made annual visits to New York, drawn to the flourishing Abstract Expressionism movement. By the 1950s, he was filling his studio was his own abstracts. 

A mini-retrospective of abstracts by Bush is on view at Paul Kyle Gallery in Vancouver now through April 12. The exhibit’s title, Flaunting the Rules, refers to Bush’s pivotal mid-career breakthrough. Thirteen paintings in this retrospective date from 1961 to 1976, when Bush was at the height of his artistic power.

Pink on Red, (1961), a huge canvas awash in red acrylic, is marked with a vertical white slab down its centre, overlaid by a horizontal pink slab. Thrust, as the painting is also titled, is also part of the show.

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Jack Bush, “June Lilac,” 1972, 74.75" x 65" (photo by Michael Cullen, courtesy of Paul Kyle Gallery)

June Lilac (1972) is reminiscent of a summer landscape, the background a marbled purple with subtle streaks of white, yellow and black. Along one edge are playful marks: a streak of green, three orange dots and a yellow petal-like shape.

Bush found inspiration in random objects — a nation’s flag, a handkerchief, chopsticks. He worked out the transformation of the image on paper, in preparation for a much larger canvas. Deep Night, (1967) is one such study, sketched in chalk and coloured pencils. An orb surrounded by cloud-like shapes, each a different colour, float against a green and white background.

Bush also experimented with backgrounds. Curved Totem (1974), an acrylic in five colours painted on a linen canvas is inside a square frame that has been rotated for a diamond-shaped display. 

There is movement in the artist’s composition of 10 painted bars, each a different colour, arranged both across and up and down the canvas. Entitled Series ‘D’ Walkway (1970), the hard geometric is one of 10 pieces in a series and exemplifies the diverse types of abstracts Bush explored.

In the last year of his life, Bush was interviewed for a National Film Board of Canada documentary. He recounted his creative transition, starting with “semi-abstract” paintings, all the while employed as a commercial artist, married and supporting three young sons. 

In 1953, Bush and other like-minded artists held a group show of their abstracts at a private gallery, dubbing themselves “Painters Eleven.”

“That shook Toronto,” Bush says in the film.  “It upset everybody, the critics, the older artists — everybody.”

In 1957, Bush formed a pivotal friendship with New York critic Clement Greenberg, receiving his encouragement to continue pushing creative boundaries. Finally in 1968, at age 59, Bush’s abstracts were selling internationally. He was able to quit his long-held job and devote all his time in his Toronto studio.

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Jack Bush, “Spin-off Yellow,” 1976, acrylic on canvas, 67.25" x 140" (photo by Kyle Juron, courtesy of Paul Kyle Gallery)

Spin-Off Yellow, (1976), the centrepiece of the show, draws the viewer into its hypnotic orbit. The elongated canvas, 6 by 12 feet, dominates the gallery wall, the background colour a brilliant yellow. Sixteen different coloured swatches emanate on either side of an off-centre white orb. Roald Nasgaard, former curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario and author of the exhibit catalogue, speculates in the catalogue writeup that the artist’s passion for music influenced the composition, with “the colour swatches flowing from left to right, getting smaller, note by note, from loud to soft.” 

Bush re-defined abstract painting and played a leading role in the Color Field movement. The NFB documentary further reveals he contributed years of service in the cultural community and mentored young artists. In 1976, a year before Bush’s untimely death from a heart attack, he received the Order of Canada. Considering this is the first solo show of his work in Vancouver in nearly half a century, it is well worth a visit. ■

Jack Bush: Flaunting the Rules is at the Paul Kyle Gallery in Vancouver from Feb. 1 to April 12, 2025.

Also see: Jack Bush Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonné

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