Harold Klunder: Recent Watercolour Paintings

WINCHESTER GALLERIES (DOWNTOWN), VICTORIA BC - June 19 - July 14, 2018
By Christine Clark
Born in Deventer, Netherlands in 1943, Harold Klunder immigrated with his family to Canada in 1952. His first solo show at Toronto’s iconic Sable-Castelli Gallery in 1976 was the beginning of a successful decades-long exhibition career. Klunder lives and works in Montreal and maintains studios in Flesherton, Ontario and Pouch Cove, Newfoundland. His work has been exhibited internationally and is included in permanent collections at the National Gallery of Canada and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
Klunder’s work is comprised of large-scale oil paintings on canvas, linen or burlap. Repeatedly described as stylistically suggestive of historic approaches, particularly the tradition of impasto painting, Klunder’s paintings are unique representations of time and the lived experience of artistic anxiety; many of his oil paintings take 10 years or longer to complete. In a 2009 interview with Efren Quiroz of exhibit-v, Klunder states that “because of the drying time…I can change the work and improve it…Sometimes you go through rough periods when you’re struggling and I feel that the struggle needs to be visible in the work.”
Beginning with a wax drawing on paper, Klunder’s recent work, a series of 10 richly hued watercolour paintings, were completed relatively quickly. He writes that “after this initial drawing I proceed to add watercolour to the equation, not knowing what might happen.” Interestingly, the urgency of the medium, the complexity of the wax/watercolour relationship and the improvisational style act together as a visual continuation of the compelling personal narrative found in all of Klunder’s pictures.
Reception, with artist in attendance, June 28, 5 - 7pm
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