, 2008. Fibreglass stone and airplane. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Purchased 2011. Photo © Roman März](/images/content/menuSeeGallery.png)
Benjamin West
The Death of General Wolfe (Detail), 1770
oil on canvas
152.6 x 214.5 cm
Transfer from the Canadian War Memorials, 1921 (Gift of the 2nd Duke of Westminster, England, 1918)
National Gallery of Canada (no. 8007)
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First Circle, 1963
Claude Tousignant
Canadian, 1932
acrylic on canvas
162.7 x 172.3 x 3.5 cm
Gift of the artist, Montreal, 1995
National Gallery of Canada (no. 38186)
© Claude Tousignant
In the period just prior to painting "First Circle", the structure of Claude Tousignant's works usually comprised a large rectangular form on the canvas. This posed a problem whereby the dynamic between negative and positive space imposed a figure/ground relationship. In "First Circle", with its vibrant colour contrast, the artist begins to explore the potential of a circle to diffuse the visual push/pull evenly across the surface plane. The surrounding rectangular space is further activated by the darker blue band at the left. Two years later, in 1965, Tousignant made a logical shift in employing circular shaped canvases in his series "Transformateurs chromatiques".
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Bas-relief in Blue and Yellow304.8 x 61 cm
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