Robert Christie: BUILDING COLOUR
Reception: Saturday September 13, 2-4 PM
September 13 - October 18
Art Placement is delighted to present BUILDING COLOUR, an exhibition of new abstract paintings and constructions by celebrated Saskatchewan artist, Robert Christie. After nearly six decades of dedicated work, Christie has established himself as a pillar of prairie abstraction. Carrying on the formalist tradition, his unique style balances reduced minimalism with a complex richness and handmade character.

Christie’s work is reduced, but never simple. There is a resolute solidity to his shapes and lines. No dilly-dallying or half measures, always a bold, definitive statement. His colors are often pure, clean, bright primaries. His lines are thick and dark; his shapes and planes are geometric, angular, with straight edges and sharp corners. Contrasts in colour and value are pushed to their extremes–black against white, primaries against their compliments, bright against muted. 

Christie’s paintings speak directly and powerfully through his orchestration of striking contrasts. Underneath this assertive simplicity, however, is a subtle softness and complexity that rewards those who look closer and longer. The more you look, the more you see. His edges, for example, are not quite as sharp as they first appear. Rather, the paint feathers, bleeds, or stains where one shape meets another. They are transitions, not barriers, with a permeability that encourages the eye to move from shape to shape and colour to colour. The colours, too, are also more modulated and complex than they first appear, not completely solid and opaque, but built up through many successive layers. Flashes of previous layers often show through here and there, most prominently along the edges. These subtle, nuanced passages give the paintings rich depth and warm character.

Robert Christie was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1946. He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1967, an Honours Degree in Art from the University of Saskatchewan in 1968, and a Bachelor of Education Degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1970. He participated in several of the Emma Lake Artists' Workshops at Emma Lake, Saskatchewan beginning in 1969, and he was the coordinator of a number of the workshops in the 1980s. He has attended other residencies internationally, including the Triangle Artists' Workshop, in Pine Plains New York, and the Thapong International Artists' Workshop, in Kanye, Botswana. His work has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions since 1969 and can be found in both public and private collections throughout Canada.