Near St-Sauveur – Lawrence Wilfred Powe

POWE, Lawrence Wilfred (act.1936) “Near St-Sauveur” Oil on masonite

Signée en bas à droite: Powe Titled on the reverse 30,5×40,5cm – 12×16″

Canadian artist Lawrence Wilfred Powe, born in 1936, was predominantly influenced by the abstract expressionism of the 1950s and by artists such as Piet Mondrian and Hans Hoffman. Throughout his artistic journey,
Powe concentrated on the formal properties of painting and explored notions of spirituality and the sublime through his artwork.

Born in 1936, Lawrence Wilfred Powe’s creative work was predominantly influenced by the 1950s.
Abstract Expressionism, a form of painting that explored notions of spirituality and the sublime, dominated the 1950s.
A number of artists concentrated on the formal properties of painting, and action painting was influenced by the political freedom of the United States, as opposed to the strict nature of the Soviet bloc.

New York City became the focus for modernism on an international scale during the Post-War period. Many artists had travelled to the city during the Second World War, fleeing in exile from Europe. This led to a substantial pooling of talent and ideas. Influential Europeans such as Piet Mondrian, Josef Albers and Hans Hoffmann provided inspiration for American artists whilst in New York, and influenced cultural growth in the United States for many decades to come. Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Frank Kline, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still and Adolph Gottlieb were predominant artists of this time. The male dominated environment has been subsequently revised to recognise the contributions of female artists such as Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, and Louise Bourgeois, amongst others.