Canadian group of painters. It was formed in November 1953 by 11 artists working in and around Toronto: Jack Bush, Oscar Cah?n (1916-56), Hortense Gordon (1887-1961), Tom Hodgson (b 1924), Alexandra Luke (1901-67), Jock Macdonald, Ray Mead (b 1921), Kazuo Nakamura (b 1926), William Ronald, Harold Town and Walter Yarwood (b 1917). Seven of these artists had shown their work together in October 1953 in Abstracts at Home, an exhibition organized by Ronald at a Toronto department store, the Robert Simpson Company; when they agreed to combine forces with four others, they chose a name that reflected their number and also made ironic reference to the Group of Seven, the Ontario-based landscape painters whose influence in the province was still pervasive in the 1950s. The members of Painters Eleven, which disbanded in October 1960, differed widely in background, experience and ambition; they were united by their interest in contemporary international art and in their belief that their need to exhibit their work would be better achieved collectively than individually. They felt isolated from the art of their own time and frustrated by the control exercised over the limited exhibiting possibilities presented by such art societies as the Ontario Society of Artists and the Canadian Group of Painters.
See the Abbreviations for further details.
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