Gordon Rayner Art
Canadian, 1935-2010
As a young person, Gordon Rayner learned to paint from his father, a commercial artist and weekend painter, and from his father`s close friend, Jack Bush. He spent 17 years working in commercial art, starting with Bush's commercial art firm, Wookey, Bush and Winter. An exhibition of Painters Eleven in 1955, and especially the work of William Ronald, which he visited with his friend, artist Dennis Burton, at Toronto's Hart House Gallery (today the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Art Museum at the University of Toronto) turned him towards abstraction as did visits to the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo (now called the Buffalo AKG Art Museum), to see artists such as Willem de Kooning.
Under the influence of the neo-Dada movement current in Toronto in the late 1950s and first half of the 1960s, Rayner began to combine found materials with his paintings.
In 1966, he began a new period in his work centred around images of Magnetawan, an area 200 miles north of Toronto, north of the Muskoka District. It provided him with a favourite painting place in which he could experiment with materials and technique while demonstrating how to refer to nature without copying it in his work. To express his feelings, he used oblique references, a thick and expressionist technique, and sometimes found objects. These paintings were intuitive reinterpretations of landscapes dramatically conceived.
Rayner showed his work with Toronto's Isaacs Gallery. For this reason, he has been called part of the Isaacs Group of artists, which include, among others, Michael Snow, Joyce Wieland, John Meredith and Graham Coughtry.
In the 1980s, his work shifted direction to a new interest in the figure. He began to reinvent this crucial subject of art for himself using dimensions of the inner, more spiritual self and obliquely explored realism in the context of the body, painting himself in inventive scenes. Some of these paintings are called the Oaxaca Suite, since Rayner lived in Oaxaca in southern Mexico in 1993 and 1994.
On September 26, 2010, Gordon Rayner died suddenly at home in Toronto.(Biography provided by Christopher Cutts Gallery)
to
12
3
12
4
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
14
10
9
8
6
4
4
3
1
1
1
2
14
1
1
16
6,856
3,188
2,516
1,217
13
12
11
4
4
Artist: Gordon Rayner
Woman Falls
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
As a young person, Gordon Rayner learned to paint from his father, a commercial artist and weekend painter, and from his father`s close friend, Jack Bush. He spent 17 years working i...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Canvas
Raising Cane (self portrait)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
2010s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Oil, Board
Spanish
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
As a young person, Gordon Rayner learned to paint from his father, a commercial artist and weekend painter, and from his father`s close friend, Jack Bush. He spent 17 years working i...
Category
1980s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Metal
In the Playpen (self portrait #11)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Board, Oil
Country Bath (self portrait)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
As a young person, Gordon Rayner learned to paint from his father, a commercial artist and weekend painter, and from his father`s close friend, Jack Bush. He spent 17 years working i...
Category
1990s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Acrylic, Canvas
Up, on the Roof (self portrait #2)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Oil, Board
Self Portrait
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
As a young person, Gordon Rayner learned to paint from his father, a commercial artist and weekend painter, and from his father`s close friend, Jack Bush. He spent 17 years working i...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Oil, Board
Sunday in the Park (self portrait #12)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Oil, Board
The Cave Behind the Falls
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
As a young person, Gordon Rayner learned to paint from his father, a commercial artist and weekend painter, and from his father`s close friend, Jack Bush. He spent 17 years working i...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Canvas, Mixed Media
Sea Roof (self portrait #6)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
As a young person, Gordon Rayner learned to paint from his father, a commercial artist and weekend painter, and from his father`s close friend, Jack Bush. He spent 17 years working i...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Oil, Board
Zig Zag Falls
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
As a young person, Gordon Rayner learned to paint from his father, a commercial artist and weekend painter, and from his father`s close friend, Jack Bush. He spent 17 years working i...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Canvas, Mixed Media
Self Portrait #3
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Board, Oil
Untitled (self portrait)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Oil, Board
Look (self portrait)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
2010s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Oil, Board
Hangover (self portrait)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
2010s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Oil, Board
Self Portrait #5
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Oil, Board
Related Items
Churro- Basswood 21" High X 9" wide
By Henry Lautz
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
Churros Basswood 21" High X 9 Wide
Wood, oil, steel
Lautz's Zen like sculpture is formed from Linden wood also known as basswood, which was considered sacred in Slavic mythology.
T...
Category
2010s Contemporary Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Steel
French School Portrait PS243 La Contrebasse d'Ingres (Large)
Located in Sempach, LU
PS 243 La Contrebasse d'Ingres
Such as Odalisque from Ingres or the photography composition from Man Ray, the most important point is the round shape of the body. The pale body sha...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Ink, Oil, Acrylic
H 23.04 in W 17.33 in D 1.38 in
Reflection in Red Contemporary Women Portrait Original Painting by Lada Kholosho
Located in Sempach, LU
In this artwork, the serenity of the figure is juxtaposed with the dynamic scarlet background, symbolizing comfort in passion and color.
The painting portrays the female form in a m...
Category
2010s Expressionist Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Acrylic, Canvas
Free Shipping
H 27.56 in W 19.69 in D 0.79 in
French School - PS 233 La Fauve s'habille en Leopard Oil Post Impressionist
Located in Sempach, LU
Ps 233 La Fauve S'habille en leopard. (Tawny wears leopard)
Portrait of a naked woman who is carrying a leopard.
Structural analysis:
Closeup portrait of a naked woman. The backgro...
Category
2010s Impressionist Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Canvas, Ink, Oil, Acrylic
H 27.56 in W 19.69 in D 1.5 in
Virgin Mary and child Jesus oil on board painting Christ
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Josep Lloveras Feliu (1922-2014) - Virgin Mary and child Jesus - Oil on panel
Oil measurements 60x49 cm.
Frame measurements 68x57 cm.
Josep Lloveras y Feliu, was a painter and sculp...
Category
1950s Fauvist Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Oil, Board
Summer. 2021. Oil on canvas, 70x70 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Summer. 2021. Oil on canvas, 70x70 cm
Colorful bright artwork with two girls
Nugzar Avtandilovich Kahiani was born in Poti, Georgia in 1952. He studied at the Art College named after Nikoladze. Then he went to serve in the Soviet Army from1970 to 1972. After completing his military service he entered the Stieglitz St. Petersburg State Academy of Art and Industry at the faculty of artistic metal, from which he graduated in 1986. During his studies, he has been actively engaged in painting. His favorite artists are Gauguin, El Greco, Botticelli, Turner and Picasso.
Works of artistic stone
He worked also with stone, cornelian and onyx. But his soul gravitated to bright and blustery color, and so he has became engaged in painting. At first his paintings were quiet, with muted tonal gamma. The color image was built on the play of hues and halftones. Such a careful elaboration of color educates the taste, sharpness and delicacy of vision. Gradually, the painter became more experienced, and his paintings acquired assurance and power of maturity, blooming in colorful brilliancy.
Nugzar's color preferences
The color of Nugzar’s paintings is deep and multi-layered. It is woven of infinite number of hues and filled with light. At first sight it may be difficult to recognize the shapes in the play of flickering color dabs. The figures appear gradually, they draw the first breath just before our eyes, crystallizing from the color heap. The painter is attracted by major tonality and motives that years ago could be called “the gallant feasts” - repasts, assiduities, music parties, and airings. After somewhat daemonic, infernal imagery of early paintings, it has appeared the theme of “Le joie de vivre,” the joy of life.
Source of inspiration
Born in the ancient Kolkhida, he keeps the blissful pagan feel of entirety and completeness of being. It is embodied almost literally in his favorite personage auroral gorgeous-bodied beauty of a girl. He grants these forms even to Olympian inhabitants - Aphrodite, Athene, Arthemide, let alone the Bacchants. I remember unwittingly that Niko Pirosmani similarly painted on his impoverished buckrams the luxurious prince repasts and languid, elephantine beauties.
Working style
But his style is not bounded by grotesque parody, as well as the irony is not the only aspect of his world outlook. In his landscapes we can catch the ecstatic admiration with Nature. In contradistinction to his favorite impressionists, he never paints from nature and never bears in mind the particular place. It is just a blooming Earth, studied very closely, so that the trees are cut by the edges of the painting, and at the same time it is a bird’s eye view revealing infinite, boundless spaces. Nougzar says that the landscape for him is first of all a color ensemble. He can just leaf through the illustrated journal, nourishing his eye with color in various combinations, and so get the impulse to create a ‘physical’ landscape image. Probably, his landscapes are no less fantastical than his figure compositions, but such is his talent, his mission - to make the world more beautiful and gentle than it is in reality.
Exhibitions
Nugzar Kakhiani...
Category
2010s Contemporary Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
‘Reclining Young Women’ Figurative, Nude Female Model O/C by Shana Wilson
By Shana Wilson
Located in Carmel, CA
Shana’s portraits adorned two covers of Time Magazine.
Shana’s work is about the face and eyes. Young face, old face, black or white. Her subjects are confused, lonely, ragged and ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Oil, Canvas
H 36 in W 48 in D 0.75 in
"JAMÓN JAMÓN I (Reliquary Generalife)", ceramic sculpture, porcelain vessel, urn
By Andrew Cornell Robinson
Located in Toronto, Ontario
"JAMÓN JAMÓN I (Reliquary Generalife)", 2019, sold in the frame shown, is one in a series of ceramic sculptures by artist Andrew Cornell Robinson...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Enamel
Dark Star
By David A. Dreyer
Located in Dallas, TX
David A. Dreyer was born in Dallas in 1958, and earned his BFA and MFA at Southern Methodist University. He was a recipient of the Moss/Chumley Award from the Meadows Museum and has ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Birch, Graphite, Oil
Abstract Landscape Mixed Media Canvas Painting 45x45" The clarity of a shore
By Irena Orlov
Located in Sherman Oaks, CA
One of a kind Mixed Medium on Canvas
Artwork: Original abstract mixed media work on canvas, which combines new media - digital original hand painting, printed on canvas, then hand p...
Category
2010s Contemporary Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Canvas, Varnish, Archival Ink, Acrylic
H 45 in W 45 in D 1.5 in
"Allure v1, " Oil painting
By Mark Bradley Schwartz
Located in Denver, CO
Mark Bradley Schwartz's (US based) "Allure v1" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a woman with long flowing red hair that curls into ringlets with straight across ban...
Category
2010s Realist Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Oil, Board
Small Abstracted Color Field Painting -- Matchsticks
By Michael Pauker
Located in Soquel, CA
Colorful abstracted color field painting of matchsticks by Bay Area artist Michael Pauker (American, b. 1957), circa 2000. Unsigned, but was acqui...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Color-Field Gordon Rayner Art
Materials
Glass, Plastic, Wood, Paper, Oil
Gordon Rayner art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Gordon Rayner art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Gordon Rayner in paint, oil paint, board and more. Not every interior allows for large Gordon Rayner art, so small editions measuring 22 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Andrew Lui, Gregory Hardy, and Magalie Comeau. Gordon Rayner art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $10,000 and tops out at $27,500, while the average work can sell for $10,500.