Edna Taon

Edna Taon became a prominent figure in Toronto during the 1940s, where she had a crucial impact on the development of abstract painting. Described as Canadas leading proponent of non-objective art, she split her time between Toronto and New York, maintaining a practice that was in step with leading avant-garde artists.

While she was formally trained as a professional violinist, Taon was also heavily influenced by the teachings of Wassily Kandinsky, and her understanding of music intertwined with her study of abstraction. She described her painting as an arena in which verve and decorum collide and where unexpected devices of design dash into a bright rhythm. While pursuing her radical art, she navigated societal barriers and a profound entanglement of her identity as a musician, artist, and woman in a maledominated field.

Accompanying an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Edna Taon features twenty-four of Taons rar