Yehouda Chaki (1938–2023)
Title: Landscape 107 (1984)
Medium: Oil on wood
Size: 5 1/2” x 8 3/4” (13 3/8” x 16 1/2” framed) …………… $2,195.00 Canadian
Dating to 1984, ‘Landscape 107’ captures the raw intensity of Yehouda Chaki’s definitive mid-career style. Painting on a solid 3/4″ plywood panel allows Chaki to create a wonderfully textured, deep tactile quality that works on paper simply cannot match. While the work is beautifully textured, it is not thickly painted—preserving a sophisticated balance on the panel. Although the artwork itself is intimate, it holds an immense visual presence on a wall, an effect heavily amplified by its large, dramatic 13 3/8” x 16 1/2” original luxury framing presentation. Combined with its fascinating, documented Toronto gallery provenance on the reverse, it stands as an exceptional, investment-grade example of Canadian contemporary expressionism.
On the back of Yehouda Chaki’s 1984 oil painting “Landscape 107,” a single paper label tells a fascinating story of survival and change in Canada’s mid-century art world.
The label belongs to Galerie Dresdnere, a powerhouse gallery founded by Simon Dresdnere in 1957. Originally a Montreal venture, the gallery moved to Toronto, eventually landing at 130 Bloor Street West. They became famous for introducing European heavyweights like Picasso and Bernard Buffet to Canadian collectors, while aggressively championing domestic talents like Chaki. The gallery survived an art heist in 1996 involving missing Riopelle canvases.
What makes this specific label unique is a clever bit of gallery thriftiness. When Galerie Dresdnere packed up its operations in the mid-1980s to join the prestigious, historic brick storefronts of the Yorkville art district at 12 Hazelton Avenue, they didn’t throw out their expensive custom stationery. Instead, a gallery worker simply stamped the new Hazelton Avenue address directly over the old Bloor Street typography.
For a collector, this double-layered label is pure gold. It acts as a physical time capsule, locking the 1984 miniature painting precisely into the gallery’s transitional era. For modern appraisers, this tiny, pragmatic detail is a rock-solid mark of authenticity that a common art forger would completely overlook.
Copyright of the artist and or the artist estate.