OUT ON THE TOWN: (I May Not Know Art, But I Know What I Like)

 I was going westbound along Dupont Street a few weeks ago when I nearly drove off the road. An art gallery had just opened, named Caviar20, and in the window I saw a piece of....well, art.  Pretty much the only way I buy anything is because I've seen it in a shop window and I feel such a strong magnetic pull to it that I can't think of anything else.  (This may explain why I don't have a lot of stuff, because I clearly don't look in shop windows enough).  

Life is busy and I had to wait two weeks till I was again headed westbound on Dupont.  The same piece was in the window.  I went online that night, looked for the gallery's website, and on it was the same piece of art. Heart pounding, I drove back to the vicinity of the gallery, and the piece in the window was gone.  I made an immediate plan to go into the gallery, find out the name and address of the buyer, kill them, and slip out the door with the piece of art (it was a lithograph) under my arm.

Luckily, I didn't have to follow through, because the gallery owner had merely changed the window display, and my piece was framed and carefully wrapped in vapour barrier (that's how I know Troy Seidman and I can be friends, because I like vapour barrier too) on the lower level of the gallery.

It's the centenary of the birth of Harold Town, and this is one of a series of Town paintings and lithographs from the very early 1970s.  There was no hesitation in my mind as to where I'd hang it. That it worked perfectly on that wall goes without saying.  I'm very mindful of the fact that I now occupy a tiny co-own in a gritty part of town (okay, I lied.  The only thing gritty about my new address is the ongoing construction of several nine-million-dollar houses on the next street over).  Be that as it may, I live a spare life.  I don't even buy a cabbage till I desperately need one.

I had a quick look around the gallery while Troy was doing the paperwork, and I saw some quite excellent artwork on the walls.  Galleries are like icebergs: 90% of the beauty is not available to the eye.  Caviar20 is an exception.  I'd have stayed longer, but I was desperate to get Blue Raspberry Stretch onto my wall.

If you're in Toronto on a Saturday and you want something to fill up your eyes, you might want to stop in at 647 Dupont.  Tell Troy I sent you.