North
Shore Canadian Art
Investment Quality Important Canadian
Art
Arto
Yuzbasiyan (1948-Present)
Title:
“Lake Ontario, Toronto”
Medium: Oil on Wood Panel
Period: Dated 1976
Size:
7.5” x 9.75”
Comments: Best known for his streetscapes of Toronto and Montreal, this harbour scene is a rare departure, painted in his typical palette.
Arto Yuzbasiyan was born in 1948 in Istanbul and emigrated to Toronto in 1973. He has learned to capture the small communities within the larger cities to remind us about the beauty and universality of the urban experience. Although he has worked in New York, Paris, Montreal and Quebec City, Yuzbasiyan is at his best when rendering the City of Toronto. His paintings are organized around street views; it is the road - its placement and topography - that provides the internal logic of his works. The usual point of view is that of people walking or driving through the city either in a snowstorm, rain or sunny days. Yuzbasiyan’s works depicting the Cabbagetown homes of Toronto and the snowy winter farms from southwestern Ontario have earned him a special place within the contemporary artists of Canada. What makes his work special and meaningful is its focus on the “out of the way”. Quiet downtown corners where life is carried on harmoniously, with little or no effort, have become the focus of his art. The inhabitants go about their business unaware, hurrying home in a winter storm or waiting for one of Yuzbasiyan’s ever-present streetcars to arrive. He has held solo exhibitions at Roberts Gallery in Toronto, the University of Toronto, Kaspar Gallery in Toronto and Kastel Gallery in Montreal, among others. His paintings are in the collection of the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C, Air Canada, the University of Toronto, Sunnybrook Hospital, the Toronto Punlic Library, Gulf Canada Ltd., Allstate Insurance Company, IBM Canada, Bell Telephone Canada, Imperial Oil Ltd, the Mercantile Bank, Cadillac Fairview Ltd., North American Life, Canada Packers Ltd, the Toronto Board of Trade, the Canadian General Electric Company, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Royal Insurance Company, Hallmark Cards, Dofasco Steel Inc., the Toronto Transit Commission, DuPont Canada, Uniroyal Tire Ltd., Xerox Canada, General Foods Inc. and many others.Click Here to Return to the Home Page