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60 RITA LETENDRE, R.C.A. ASANNKI acrylic on canvas signed and titled on the reverse 36 ins x 108 ins; 91.4 cms x 274.3 cms
Literature: Anne-Marie Ninacs “The Teaching of Life” in Rita Letendre: Aux couleurs du jour, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec, 2004, page 137. Note: “Rita Letendre’s painting is first a celebration of life. Through its infinite ability to marvel at colour, light and movement as so many manifestations of energy, it reminds us essentially that life is not a right but, on the contrary, at every moment a feat.”
$10,000–15,000 While her early works - spontaneous and thickly impastoed - made clear reference to her teacher Paul-Émile Borduas, the 1970s saw an entirely unique development for Rita Letendre. Restricting herself to schematic rays of intense colour, Letendre developed futuristic, linear abstractions that could be easily transformed into a multitude of variations. The piercing horizon lines and colour bands of these works are comprised of chevrons that seem to radiate without measure beyond the confines of the canvas. Until 1975, all works produced by the artist would reflect the hard-edged style seen in Asannki – a style that would become synonymous with the decade and emblematic of Letendre’s name.
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