Rita Letendre
(Canadian, 1928–2021)
Untitled (Vibration)
c. 1972–1978
Gouache on card
Canvas: 40 × 15.25 in. (101.6 × 38.7 cm)
Framed: 41.75 × 16.75 in. (106.0 × 42.5 cm)
Executed in the 1970s, this painting represents the defining height of Rita Letendre's celebrated airbrush period. In 1971, Letendre introduced the spray gun into her studio practice, combining soft, atmospheric chromatic gradients with razor-sharp, hard-edge vectors. In this vertical composition, a central spine of yellow, black, and light turquoise lines shoots upward like a beam of light, flanked by soft transitions of golden orange, cobalt blue, and earth brown.
For Letendre, these arrow-like vectors and vibrating vertical lines represented raw energy, speed, and spiritual force. Rooted in both her Abenaki heritage and her early work with Les Automatistes and Les Plasticiens, Letendre used the airbrush to strip away paint texture, allowing color and light to exist in pure, radiant suspension. Measuring 40 inches in height, this vertical format echoes her major civic mural commissions of the decade, such as her famous 1971 Toronto mural Sunrise, creating an impression of infinite momentum reaching toward the sky.
As one of Canada's most vital non-objective painters, Rita Letendre shattered boundaries for women and Indigenous artists in 20th-century art. Her 1970s airbrush works remain the most recognizable and coveted period of her long, distinguished six-decade career.
Major Accolades & Recognition:
Appointed Officer of the Order of Canada (O.C.)
Winner of the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts (2010)
Recipient of the Prix Paul-Émile Borduas (2016)
Associated with Les Automatistes and Les Plasticiens
Subject of the major solo retrospective Fire & Light at the Art Gallery of Ontario (2017)
Selected Permanent Collections:
National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON)
Art Gallery of Ontario / AGO (Toronto, ON)
Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal / MMFA (Montreal, QC)
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal / MACM (Montreal, QC)
Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC)
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec / MNBAQ (Quebec City, QC)
Rita Letendre
(Canadian, 1928–2021)
Untitled (Vibration)
c. 1972–1978
Gouache on card
Canvas: 40 × 15.25 in. (101.6 × 38.7 cm)
Framed: 41.75 × 16.75 in. (106.0 × 42.5 cm)
Executed in the 1970s, this painting represents the defining height of Rita Letendre's celebrated airbrush period. In 1971, Letendre introduced the spray gun into her studio practice, combining soft, atmospheric chromatic gradients with razor-sharp, hard-edge vectors. In this vertical composition, a central spine of yellow, black, and light turquoise lines shoots upward like a beam of light, flanked by soft transitions of golden orange, cobalt blue, and earth brown.
For Letendre, these arrow-like vectors and vibrating vertical lines represented raw energy, speed, and spiritual force. Rooted in both her Abenaki heritage and her early work with Les Automatistes and Les Plasticiens, Letendre used the airbrush to strip away paint texture, allowing color and light to exist in pure, radiant suspension. Measuring 40 inches in height, this vertical format echoes her major civic mural commissions of the decade, such as her famous 1971 Toronto mural Sunrise, creating an impression of infinite momentum reaching toward the sky.
As one of Canada's most vital non-objective painters, Rita Letendre shattered boundaries for women and Indigenous artists in 20th-century art. Her 1970s airbrush works remain the most recognizable and coveted period of her long, distinguished six-decade career.
Major Accolades & Recognition:
Appointed Officer of the Order of Canada (O.C.)
Winner of the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts (2010)
Recipient of the Prix Paul-Émile Borduas (2016)
Associated with Les Automatistes and Les Plasticiens
Subject of the major solo retrospective Fire & Light at the Art Gallery of Ontario (2017)
Selected Permanent Collections:
National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON)
Art Gallery of Ontario / AGO (Toronto, ON)
Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal / MMFA (Montreal, QC)
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal / MACM (Montreal, QC)
Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC)
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec / MNBAQ (Quebec City, QC)
