AND CHRISTOPHER CUTTS GALLERY

In an exciting new project, the Toronto Animated Image Society, in conjunction with Christopher Cutts gallery, has commissioned eleven independent Canadian animators to make films inspired by the works of each member of the Painters Eleven.

Representing a high point in Canadian art history, the Painters Eleven was a hugely successful abstract painting movement in Toronto in the Fifties that finally broke the pervasive style of the Group of Seven, allowing for a freedom of expression already taking place in Montreal and New York. While its works were initially met with hostility, the movement was quickly supported and acclaimed by international critics like Clement Greenberg, and its legacy has arguably left an indelible mark on the trajectory of contemporary painting. In tribute to the Eleven’s brash, visual vocabulary, these commissioned works reflect a vast and astonishing array of animation techniques and styles, from the use of 35 and 16mm and digital manipulations, to glass paintings and paper drawings. The resulting films provide a fascinating and innovative dialogue with a static medium, which through its abstraction often transcends its own two-dimensionality. Please join us for the world premiere of these new works by some of Canada’s finest and up-and-coming animators. – Andréa Picard

inspired by Ray Mead

inspired by William Ronald

inspired by Alexandra Luke

inspired by Oscar Cahén

inspired by Jock Macdonald

This project has been organized by Madi Piller for TAIS. We also wish to thank Tara Schorr (TAIS) and Christopher Cutts for making this event possible.

All eleven films will be on exhibit, along with paintings by the Painters Eleven at the Christopher Cutts Gallery (21 Morrow Avenue) from November 18 - 25.

All of the above filmmakers are expected to be in attendance for this programme.