Things with Tops

More Works By David Cantine Acrylic on Plexiglass 2012
13.75 × 17.5 in 34.93 × 44.45 cm
$4,300

About Things with Tops

Two rectangular shapes, one in textured umber and the other in dark navy, are topped with white and beige. These enigmatic and humorously titled "things with tops" are outcrops that contrast with the precisely painted ground of rectangles. The rectangles in shades of yellow follow the artist's minimalist and contemplative approach to acrylic painting on plexiglass. This work is unframed.

Cantine's work is a poetic and intellectual exploration of a pictorial problem, color as structure which has infinite variations. 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.