The Annunciation: Eatons Christmas
Window, Toronto (Detail)
Alkyd on Canvas, 214 cm x 153 cm (7' x 5')
Price: Inquire

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Store-Window Madonna (Detail)
Alkyd on Canvas, 76 cm x 76 cm (30" x 30")
Price: Inquire

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The Singing Angel: Study for
The Annunciation (Detail)
105 cm x 77 cm (42" x 30")
Price: Inquire

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Provincetown (Detail)
Oil on Canvas, 76 cm x 102 cm (30" x 40")
Available through a commercial art gallery: inquire

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The Harlequin (Study) (Detail)
Oil on Canvas, 61 cm x 46 cm (24" x 18")
Available through a commercial art gallery: inquire

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Clocks: Window on Queen
Street, Toronto (Detail)
Alkyd and Watercolour on Paper,
77 cm x 105 cm (30" x 42")
Available through a commercial art gallery: inquire

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Mundi Fabricator (Detail)
Alkyd and Watercolour on Paper,
104 cm x 75 cm (41" x 29 1/2")
Price: Inquire

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Spanish Dancers at Harvey Nichols (Detail)
Alkyd and Watercolour on Paper,
55 cm x 76 cm (22" x 30")
Available through a commercial art gallery: inquire

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The Window Series (1988-present)

Ken Tolmie’s Window Series uses storefronts and window displays as a visual metaphor for urban life. The multiple levels of reflection and reference visible on and through the glass express the shifting contexts, surprise juxtapositions, and random cultural references that city dwellers encounter daily. Stylistically, the Window Series offers a conspectus of artistic developments during the last hundred years: using the Cubist idea of a very shallow space and a deregulated environment in terms of perspective, Tolmie transcends the limitations of much realist art, or what he calls “the strait-jacket of vantage point perspective.”

These paintings represent a significant change for the artist, both in subject-matter and medium. Earlier Window Series paintings were mostly watercolours, and tended to focus on collections of objects in store windows; in contrast, these newer works make a stronger visual impact by exploiting the brighter colours and greater tonal range that oils can produce. Tolmie’s recent oil paintings focus almost exclusively on department store mannequins: the artist explores the artificiality of social categories such as gender, categories that are instantly recognizable even in these manufactured objects. The artist explains his fascination with mannequins in a QuickTime movie entitled “Mannequins Don’t Look Back”.

Further works from the first phase of the Window Series can be viewed in the Museum section of this website.