{"product_id":"gershon-iskowitz-portrait-of-a-friend-1955","title":"GERSHON ISKOWITZ \"PORTRAIT OF A FRIEND\" 1955","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDrawing remained a lifelong and parallel practice for \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/soj7epgdamb7i2fl-742712.shopifypreview.com\/collections\/gershon-iskowitz\"\u003eGershon Iskowitz\u003c\/a\u003e \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e(1919-1988). \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAfter immigrating to Canada in 1948, Iskowitz attended informal life-drawing sessions at the Artists’ Workshop in Toronto, producing quick studies of figures, portraits, and street scenes. By the early 1950s, his portrait drawings had developed into a distinctive form of immediate contour drawing, emphasizing the essential features of his subjects with minimal shading or tonality. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eIn 1954, Iskowitz made his first recorded Canadian exhibition appearance at the Art Gallery of Toronto, showing two drawings\/watercolours. By 1955 he was developing a body of portraits and figure studies alongside his early landscape experiments.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\"Portrait of a Friend\" belongs to this formative period, when Iskowitz was establishing a new life in Toronto and developing relationships within the city’s emerging artistic community. Around this time, he became friends with artists Eric Freifeld and Yehuda Podeswa, whose portraits he also painted in 1954–55.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\"Portrait of a Friend\" exemplifies the directness of the artist's early portrait drawings. Executed in spare yet expressive lines, the work captures the sitter through a few carefully observed gestures rather than sustained description. The face emerges from an animated network of contours, while the loosely indicated shoulders and clothing dissolve into the surrounding paper. Areas of heavier, more emphatic mark-making animate hair texture and facial features, creating a striking contrast with the largely untouched ground. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIskowitz uses the fluidity of the line to convey not only likeness but presence, allowing the sitter to emerge gradually from the page. The result is intimate and spontaneous, demonstrating the observational discipline that would remain fundamental to his practice even as his art moved increasingly toward landscape and, eventually, pure abstraction.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eQuestions about this piece? \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"mailto:troy@caviar20.com\"\u003eContact us\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, call +1.416.704.1720, or\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.caviar20.com\/pages\/contact\"\u003evisit our Toronto Gallery\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Portrait of a Friend\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCanada, 1955\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInk on paper\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e11\"H 8\"W (visible)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e19\"H 15\"W (framed)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOverall good condition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNote: price is $2,950 CAD\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gershon Iskowitz","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67748446109932,"sku":"10-26","price":2950.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0074\/2712\/files\/Caviar20_Gershon-Iskowitz-Portrait-of-a-friend-drawing_01.jpg?v=1792097290","url":"https:\/\/www.caviar20.com\/products\/gershon-iskowitz-portrait-of-a-friend-1955","provider":"Caviar20","version":"1.0","type":"link"}