Artwork of the Week!

Week 4:

Tony Tascona (1926-2006)
Autumn
1994
Silkscreen, 40/45
Gift of Tony Tascona and Doreen Millin

Educated at the Winnipeg School of Art and, subsequently, at the University of Manitoba School of Art, Tony Tascona is recognized nationally for his abstract paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings. Among his many honours, Tascona was awarded a Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Winnipeg in 1994 and was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1996. Along with his contemporaries Winston Leathers and Bruce Head, Tascona led Winnipeg's modernist art scene.

Over the years, Tascona produced many prints and his folio, tellingly titled The Four Seasons, reflects the shift in his work that took place during the 1990s. In the last two decades of his artistic career, Tascona returned to softer colours, more delicate lines and organic themes. Art critic Alilson Gillmor has written about the quartet of silkscreen images:

"The Four Seasons print folio from 1994 takes on a traditional theme in art history and gives it a modernist twist, expressing the year not through peasants doing their seasonal tasks, but through colour and form..." (unpublished text, 1998)