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Features / September 8, 2015

Bill Clarke’s Top Pick from the Canadian Art Foundation Auction

Writer and collector Bill Clarke picks his favourite work from the Canadian Art Foundation's upcoming auction.
Paul Butler, <em>Untitled (Words Fall Short)</em>, 2015. Paul Butler, Untitled (Words Fall Short), 2015.

The Canadian Art Foundation’s annual auction takes place during our 20th anniversary Gala on September 17. In anticipation, we asked members of our art-advisory committee to select their favourite works on the auction block. We’ll be publishing their selections from September 8 to 12—our auction preview week, when all of the works will be on view at Waddingtons.

Bill Clarke, collector and writer

Paul Butler, Untitled (Words Fall Short), 2015.

One of my (many) favourites in this year’s auction is Paul Butler’s Untitled (Words Fall Short). It’s a visually engaging collage-based work but, being a jazz buff, what grabs me is the source image. For this series, Butler reconfigured album covers from the 1950s and ’60s by jazz greats like Art Blakey and Freddie Hubbard. This one is jazz organist Jimmy Smith’s 1960 Blue Note album Home Cookin’. It’s a swingin’ album turned into a swingin’ piece of art.

Click here for information on Gala tickets, and the full auction catalogue.