Primary Still Life With Browns

About Primary Still Life With Browns

Orchestrated circular shapes of gold, dark brown, coral, and silver with gray and light yellow define the white ground of this 17 inches square minimalist acrylic painting on plexiglas. Cantine's work is a poetic and intellectual exploration of a pictorial problem, color as structure which has infinite variations. His paintings may take up to two years to complete. This work is currently unframed and exhibited on a designed ledge that accompanies the painting. The work may also be shipped framed upon request for an additional cost.

Cantine was quoted in the Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art 2000: "For the past 36 years I have painted essentially the same still-life, which began as a pair of apples and its shadow and evolved, under pressure of color, into the present imagery. The pressure comes from the sense that color itself is the issue here. For example, apples will remain “apples” and only incidentally “red” unless re-drawn for the sake of the color. Thus the present imagery represents a kind of deconstruction of normal drawing. This is done by the strict use of symmetry, solid/unbroken color, non-overlapping shapes, and a single viewpoint perspective within a square format. All of these features (and others) have proven necessary in helping colors to achieve a clear position and dimension within the picture, a still-life of colorful space." David Cantine

Cantine may be referred to as a post-minimalist, a term coined by Robert Pincus-Witten in 1971 to describe work with a minimalist tendency but that uses modest materials and aims towards a pure formalist aesthetic

David Cantine is a senior Canadian painter who has been exploring the still life for many years. Cantine was born in Jackson, Michigan (1939) and studied at the University of Iowa (BFA, MA) before moving to Alberta and working as a professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta (1965 – 96). His work has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of Alberta, FAB Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art among others and is represented in numerous private and public collections.