Our Current Inventory

Harold Barling Town (1924-1990) was a Toronto-born abstract painter, illustrator, printmaker, sculptor and writer.  He attended the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, 1943-45.  He gained international recognition and, also rose to fame as a founding member of Painters Eleven (Toronto, 1953), a group of Canadian avant-garde abstract painters that helped to establish Modern art in Canada.

Two retrospective exhibitions were organized for Harold Town by the Windsor Art Gallery (1975) and the Art Gallery of Ontario (1986).

Selected Exhibitions

  • 2000 – Oscar Cahén and Harold Town – Paint & Paper, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
  • 1999 – Painters Eleven – Commemorative Exhibition, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
  • 1979-1991 – Painters Eleven in Retrospect, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa
  • 1987-1990 – Town. Works on Paper 1952 – 1987, Canada House, London; Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris. National tour
  • 1990 – Town. Four Decades, The Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
  • 1986 – Harold Town. A Retrospective, Art Gallery Ontario, Toronto
  • 1984 – Toy Horse Drawings, Moore Gallery, Hamilton; Laing Galleries, Toronto
  • 1980 – Poets and Other People. Drawings by Harold Town. Art Gallery of Windsor
  • 1975 – Indications. Harold Town 1944 – 1975, Art Gallery of Windsor. Touring Exhibition
  • 1973 – Harold Town. The First Exhibition of New Work, 1969 – 1973, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa. Touring Exhibition
  • 1972 – Toronto Painting: 1953 – 1965, The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; The Art Gallery of Toronto
  • 1971 – Silent Stars, Sound Stars, Film Stars, Sears Vincent Price Gallery, Chicago. Touring Exhibition
  • 1970 – Harold Town. Enigmas, Hart House, University of Toronto
  • 1965 – Eros ’65, Dorothy Cameron Gallery, Toronto
  • 1964 – Canadian Painting, Tate Gallery, London; XXXII Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
  • 1963 – Fifteen Canadian Artists, Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • 1958 – Painters Eleven with Distinguished Artists from Quebec, The Park Gallery, Toronto
  • 1957 – Painters Eleven 1957 Exhibition, The Park Gallery, Toronto; L’Ecole des Beaux Arts, Montreal
  • 1954 – Painters Eleven, Roberts Gallery, Toronto