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William Ronald 1926 - 1998 Canadian oil, duco and casein on board Jazz Town 36 x 48 inches 91.4 x 121.9 centimeters signed and dated 1953 and on verso signed on the stretcher and titled on the board and the stretcher Provenance:Acquired directly from the Artist Private Collection, Ontario Exhibited:Eglinton Gallery, Toronto, Paintings: Karl May, William Ronald, March 1954 Hart House, University of Toronto, William Ronald, Paintings and Poems, February 28 - March 13, 1955 In 1952, William Ronald was awarded a Canadian Amateur Hockey Association scholarship, which allowed him to study with Hans Hofmann in New York for six months. His exposure to the New York School of Abstract Expressionists, generally accepted as the first American avant-garde movement of international significance, provided Ronald with the impetus for his own artistic development. American artists such as Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning were turning the personal inside out and producing a new paradigm in art - raw, emotional, irascible and unwilling to pander to the concept of accessibility. As such, Jazz Town is an exciting and important painting, embodying Ronald's initial experimentation with New York abstraction. Self-assured yet delicate, Jazz Town is an exploration of spontaneity and musical rhythm against a backdrop of a richly textured surface. The black bursts of paint almost dance along the canvas like notes on a musical staff against a sea of colourful harmony. The work pulses with Ronald's energy, and, as an uncompromising abstraction will do, demands our sustained reflection. Jazz Town was exhibited at Hart House and was subsequently stored in Ronald's studio for a number of years before being acquired directly from the artist by the current owner.