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hk-full.jpg

Harold Klunder

$67,000.00

Harold Klunder
(Canadian, b. Netherlands, 1943)
Silence
2000
Oil on canvas
Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse
68.5 × 68.5 × 3 in. (174.0 × 174.0 × 7.6 cm)

Executed in 2000, Silence is a monumental, six-foot masterwork by Harold Klunder that exemplifies the artist’s unique fusion of non-objective abstraction and subterranean psychological portraiture. At first glance, the canvas presents a dense, architectural terrain of impasto strokes, weathered grey washes, and vivid accents of cobalt blue, cadmium red, ochre, and pink. Upon closer engagement, however, the abstract surface yields to a complex visual world of emerging figuration: mask-like heads, ghostly profiles, watchful eyes, and expressive mouths coyly reveal themselves from beneath heavy, tectonic layers of paint.

For Klunder, abstraction is never entirely detached from the human form. Canvases often serve as multi-layered "self-portraits" built up over months or years of intensive studio practice. The title Silence offers a poetic paradox. Far from quiet, the painting vibrates with physical energy, preserving early ideas, forms, and hidden faces beneath its dramatic 3-inch canvas depth like memories embedded in the mind.

Born in Deventer, the Netherlands, in 1943, Klunder immigrated to Canada in 1952. Drawing on the rich impasto traditions of European masters such as Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh, and Willem de Kooning, he has spent over five decades expanding the boundaries of non-objective painting through a physically rigorous, emotionally charged studio practice.

Major Accolades & Recognition:

  • Widely recognized as one of Canada's most important living abstract painters

  • Member, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (R.C.A., elected 1983)

  • Debut solo exhibition at the historic Sable-Castelli Gallery, Toronto (1976)

  • Major retrospectives and solo surveys at the MacLaren Art Centre, McClure Gallery, and TrépanierBaer Gallery

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)

  • Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg, MB)

Harold Klunder
(Canadian, b. Netherlands, 1943)
Silence
2000
Oil on canvas
Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse
68.5 × 68.5 × 3 in. (174.0 × 174.0 × 7.6 cm)

Executed in 2000, Silence is a monumental, six-foot masterwork by Harold Klunder that exemplifies the artist’s unique fusion of non-objective abstraction and subterranean psychological portraiture. At first glance, the canvas presents a dense, architectural terrain of impasto strokes, weathered grey washes, and vivid accents of cobalt blue, cadmium red, ochre, and pink. Upon closer engagement, however, the abstract surface yields to a complex visual world of emerging figuration: mask-like heads, ghostly profiles, watchful eyes, and expressive mouths coyly reveal themselves from beneath heavy, tectonic layers of paint.

For Klunder, abstraction is never entirely detached from the human form. Canvases often serve as multi-layered "self-portraits" built up over months or years of intensive studio practice. The title Silence offers a poetic paradox. Far from quiet, the painting vibrates with physical energy, preserving early ideas, forms, and hidden faces beneath its dramatic 3-inch canvas depth like memories embedded in the mind.

Born in Deventer, the Netherlands, in 1943, Klunder immigrated to Canada in 1952. Drawing on the rich impasto traditions of European masters such as Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh, and Willem de Kooning, he has spent over five decades expanding the boundaries of non-objective painting through a physically rigorous, emotionally charged studio practice.

Major Accolades & Recognition:

  • Widely recognized as one of Canada's most important living abstract painters

  • Member, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (R.C.A., elected 1983)

  • Debut solo exhibition at the historic Sable-Castelli Gallery, Toronto (1976)

  • Major retrospectives and solo surveys at the MacLaren Art Centre, McClure Gallery, and TrépanierBaer Gallery

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)

  • Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg, MB)

Harold Klunder is considered to be one of Canada’s most important painters. He was born in 1943 in Deventer, The Netherlands. He moved to Canada in 1952 and, at the age of 17, left his family’s farm near Hamilton, Ontario, to pursue art studies at Central Technical School in Toronto (1960-1964). There, he studied under renowned landscape painter Doris McCarthy, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 100. Post-graduation, Klunder became an integral part of Toronto’s art scene, transitioning from post-war abstraction to the vibrant era of 60s Pop Art. His debut solo exhibition took place in 1976 at the Sable-Castelli gallery.

Over the past thirty years, Klunder has developed a distinctive style, particularly in self-portraits, using forms that demonstrate his deep engagement with the medium of paint. His work, often large-scale and taking years to complete, reflects an acute awareness of art history and the influence of Dutch masters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh, and Willem de Kooning. Klunder’s paintings invite viewers into a narrative journey, revealing a lifetime of dedication to the art form, its rich history, and its immediate impact on contemporary audiences.

Klunder’s significant contributions to art are recognized through his inclusion in numerous prestigious permanent collections, including the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University in Kingston, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the Art Gallery of Mississauga, the Art Gallery of Newfoundland & Labrador at Memorial University in St. John’s, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax, and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. His work is also featured in the Art Gallery of Peel in Brampton, the Art Gallery of Peterborough, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, the Canada Council Art Bank in Ottawa, and in the collections of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa, Paris, and Rome.

Additionally, Klunder’s art is housed in Gallery Stratford, the Government of Ontario in Toronto, the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Laurentian University in Sudbury, the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery at Concordia University in Montreal, the London Regional Art and Historical Museums, the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, the McIntosh Gallery at The University of Western Ontario in London, the McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University in Hamilton, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in North York, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, The Nickle Arts Museum at the University of Calgary, the Noosa Regional Gallery in Tewantin, Queensland, Australia, and the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Collection, a gift to the Art Gallery of Ontario.