House on Baldwin Street, Toronto (1/8)

use contact page to request from Nyilasi Fine Art in

Hamilton, Canada

ink on paper

12 x 15.5 inches print size

1969

Print #1.

Series: Edition of 8 prints.

signed

framed

Catalogue No: TNYIL-224

Description: During his years at the Ontario College of Art, Tibor Nyilasi and his classmates were often sent out by their instructors to visually explore the back alleys of the streets around the art college in downtown Toronto. They were to find striking subject matter by looking at the private informality of these alleys: the back porches, clutter, staircases, laundry hung out to dry. Nyilasi ‘s creative imagination was stimulated by this assignment, and throughout his career, from time to time, he would seek out and portray neglected houses, unnoticed corners, and discarded items. In 1969 he returned to this theme in this limited-edition woodcut of Baldwin Street as viewed from a back laneway. Baldwin Street is near the Ontario College of Art. By 1969 he was already employed as a visual arts specialist teacher and would have had access to a good quality printing press in his school. In this woodcut, the chosen medium allowed him to emphasize the architectural features of these buildings. The stories rise vertically and are counterbalanced by the horizontal lines of the shingled sidings. The viewer feels that the houses are full of the activity, bustle and proximity of private lives. The row of conjoined homes stands stolidly between the earth in the foreground and the sky above. The woodcut suggests that established urban housing simply becomes a part of the natural environment.